For seven thousand years concrete has periodically shaped the path of human progress. Reese Palley's fascinating history of this ubiquitous and versatile material chronicles the repeated and often centuries-long losses of the technology and its many reemergences and the cultural, scientific, and engineering accomplishments it has enabled.
Palley takes us from concrete's earliest beginnings, including the startling proof that at least one of the pyramids was partially poured, through the building of the Eddystone Light, to the dramatic building explosion in the use of concrete during the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century. He discusses the environmental impact of the production of concrete and attempts to find substitutes for the burning of lime. He ends by contemplating outer space, where almost all of the elements needed to build extraterrestrial communities already exist in the chemical makeup of the moon and Mars.
- ISBN10 1593720394
- ISBN13 9781593720391
- Publish Date 4 October 2010
- Publish Status Inactive
- Out of Print 15 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint The Quantuck Lane Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 232
- Language English