Romans. Pretty good engineers.

[Tidewater]

Scientists explain ancient Rome's long-lasting concrete

Ancient sea walls built by the Romans used a concrete made from lime and volcanic ash to bind with rocks. ... Rather than eroding, particularly in the presence of sea water, the material seems to gain strength from the exposure. ... the concrete contained a rare mineral called aluminium tobermorite.

Having personally benefitted from Roman engineering, I have long marveled at the skill of Roman engineers.

 

[seebell]

amazing thing is we still don't know exactly how to make Roman concrete. Better than what we have today.

Romana re magna. :tongue:

 

[Tidewater]

amazing thing is we still don't know exactly how to make Roman concrete. Better than what we have today.

Yeah. The cool part was that Roman concrete gets stronger by exposure to sea water.

 

[IMALOYAL1]

“Further, I think that Carthage should be destroyed.”

Cato.

 

[Tidewater]

Cato.

... and then Scipio Æmilianus went and did it.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Spent two weeks in Italy last summer - the fact that some of those buildings, aqueducts, and roads even exist today - much less that you can still safely want on / through / in them - is astonishing. While I doubt they hd any clue s to why their concrete was so good, they were certainly either very good at testing / keeping records or lucky...

 

[bamachile]

If they were such good engineers, why did it take Mussolini to make their trains run on time?

 

[DzynKingRTR]

amazing thing is we still don't know exactly how to make Roman concrete. Better than what we have today.

Romana re magna. :tongue:

they didn't have to deal with building code officials

 

[Elefantman]

 

[cbi1972]

They didn't farm out construction to the lowest bidder. Oh wait, yes they did. Astounding.