Re: Water Catchment Walls - hemp

[John Schinnerer <johns@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

Apparently the Romans (and possibly others before us) used hemp fibers in
their mortar mixes; the fibers eventually did something similar to a
fossilization process, as I understand it.  That is, over long periods of
time they mineralized and made the whole mortar mix much stronger.  I have
seen this written up somewhere; probably in some of the hemp advocacy
literature and web site.

The Romans did not have cement as we know it, so these would probably have
been some sort of lime mortar mix.

John Schinnerer
-------------------------------
Human Habitat Design
Cultural & Ecological Designing
johns@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net
 

On Sun, 26 Nov 2000, Yaya Balinci wrote:

> i read somewhere and have also heard from others that the romans used hemp
> 'stone' to build their aquifers which shuttled water around their
> metropolis'. hemp is high in silica which apparently helps in the setting of
> cement? i spoke with a man from vancouver island a year or so ago who was
> experimenting with hemp stone. he was making baffles for sound rooms and
> also making speaker casings out of hemp. apparently it is much lighter than
> regular cement.