Monday 5 March 2012

A Utopian interlude

2 Facts:

'Concrete' was (according to the father of all lies) invented on the island of Crete by the Minoans.

The last stable of the last builder's horse belonging to 'Haywards' used to be my workshop when it was in the middle of Bath.

On the wall was - written in pencil - the last time the horse was shoed, and this was some time in the 1930s, if I remember correctly.

7 comments:

  1. My father, a stickler for proper definition, led me to believe concrete was used for building and cement for sticking things together. Wickipedia seems to use them interchangeably. Has that much precision been lost in forty years? Nice shoes.

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    1. Concrete is mortar with aggregate which sets in large masses, and mortar is (or should be) used as a jointing compound - glues are the only things which should stick things together. The finer the joint, the less mortar is needed, and the finest (Egyptian) joints of all, need no mortar at all.

      Yes, the shoes are Crockett and Jones, Northampton. That cellar cover has been walked over by many people, including - to my knowledge - HRH Princess Margaret, Helen Mirren (though she denies it, but I saw her) Roddy Llewelyn and assorted celebrities when the establishment outside which it is was called, 'Parsen Sally'. It is now a 'Cafe Rouge'. sigh...

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    2. P.S. I have examined 40 ton blocks of granite in the Great Pyramid which have joints so fine that you could not insert a razor blade in them, and they have no mortar. Concrete was widely developed by the Romans (the lime version, not the cement one) and is as hard today as it was when it was first made. I wish I could say the same.

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  2. I used to collect names with o in the middle. Full-o-pep, Gil-o-teen, etc. Not so many around these days.

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  3. Didn't you used to collect fine specimens of dried dog-turds too, Cro?

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