Interesting facts about concrete

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Enough materials are written about interesting materials about concrete, its properties and applications for Geektimes. For example, about the first house printed in Russia, I read it here. I suppose my material here would be very appropriate.

Under the cut:
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• Who built the first monolithic house;
• Why in the US roads serve 30 years;
• Ships of concrete;
• Clear concrete;
• and other interesting facts.

For starters: in 1917, the Norwegian engineer Nikolai Fegner created the first self-propelled seagoing vessel "Namsenfijord" of reinforced concrete. During World War II, 24 reinforced concrete vessels and 80 barges were built in the USA.

Reinforced concrete barge at the Riga pier. Photo source

The very first concrete

The earliest concrete dates back to 5,600 BC. On the banks of the Danube, archaeologists found a hut built of mixtures of gravel, sand, water and cement. And the floor thickness in it reached 25 cm. A good example of monolithic construction without special equipment.

Pyramids were cast from concrete

Assumptions that the pyramids were built of concrete are not new. At the end of the last century, a Swiss professor of chemistry, Joseph Davidovits, suggested that there is no special secret in building the tombs of the pharaohs - they were built thanks to concrete pouring. Not so long ago, inside one of the blocks standing in the pyramid of Cheops, they found human hair belonging to an ancient builder.

All roads lead to Rome

A number of roads built by the Roman Empire were built in swampy or water-rich areas. As it turned out, back in the III - II centuries BC the ancient Romans already knew how to make concrete, frozen in water. It was based on lime and ash of volcanic origin.

The first monolithic house

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The first concrete house was built by Edisson Cement Company in Portland. The inventor decided to rid the city of slums and help the family of every working person to get a strong fireproof house. Relatively inexpensive.

The price for a monolithic house with piping, bathroom and other amenities was about 1,200 dollars. This is about three times less than the price for a brick house.

But, despite the fact that Edison cement was used in the construction of many structures around New York during the construction boom in the early 1900s, the concrete houses did not survive.

There were three reasons:

• Molds and equipment required for construction required large financial resources at the start, and few companies could afford it.
• Some families did not want to move into houses that were advertised as new housing for those who lived in slums.
• The houses were just ugly.

As a result, the first inhabitant of such a house was Edison himself.

Why in the US roads for 30 years serve

America is a country of roads. But 55,000 miles of American highways are not at all asphalt, but flooded with high-quality, concrete and not afraid of moisture and frost. Therefore, the cars that drive them have a much longer lifespan than those that travel on asphalt. The first concrete road was laid in the USA in 1930, in the state of Indiana, and then in Illinois in 1940.

US roads are classified from the most significant and passable to the less significant:

• Interstate Highways (denoted by the index I),
• US Highways (US),
• State Highways (in this case TX),
• FM roads (FM, meaning Farm to Market),
• Local Roads (this group includes other roads, such as Road (Rd), Avenue (Ave), Junction (Jct) and others).

Roads with indexes I and US are made of concrete. According to them is the largest flow of transport and cargo. But there is a small feature: some roads are covered with asphalt. But this is only an appearance: under asphalt - concrete. This is done to extend the life of the road and delay the repair after wear of the concrete pavement. To block the road with concrete is more difficult and expensive than asphalt.

The choice in favor of concrete was made because of its strength, durability, unpretentiousness to long-term load and the advantage of long-range battlefields. Cons - problematic styling and repair. In the case of asphalt, the road is ready for the flow of cars in 7-8 hours, and a concrete road takes several months of work.

Bridge and concrete roads last up to 30 years without major repairs, asphalt roads last up to 10 years, and then, if they are properly laid.

Concrete climate control

Due to the light color, concrete reflects light by 33–50% more than asphalt. Thanks to this, the city authorities of Atlanta managed to lower the average daily temperature in the city by 4 ° . Ten-year street research conducted in the mid-1980s in the state of Kansas, showed that the cost of maintaining asphalt pavements in comparison with concrete is nine times higher.

Champion on demand

Concrete is the most sought-after material in the world. Every year in the world about 6 billion cubic meters of this building material is produced. If we consider that the number of earthlings is about the same, then it turns out that each year there is about 1 m3 of produced concrete per inhabitant of the planet.

Floating concrete

It sounds strange, but reinforced concrete was used for the construction of boats and ships. The material was patented in 1848 by the Frenchman Joseph Monnier. A few years later, a rowing boat made of reinforced concrete was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris. Also French inventor. Link to the picture at the beginning of the article.

Concrete Table Tennis

A few days ago I came across a picture of a tennis table made of ... concrete. The author of the creation was a design studio from Barnaul. Read about how they did it here . The material has interesting details, for example, how to make the surface of the tabletop smooth, what should be the grid and other subtleties.

Clear concrete

The young inventor from Israel (Aron Losonczi) invented "transparent" concrete, adding fiberglass to the composition. As a result, the new material transmits light and looks much lighter, maintaining its properties.


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