Comments on: Sticky rice mortar key to Chinese buildings’ strength http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/6355 History fetish? What history fetish? Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:54:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: livius drusus http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/6355/comment-page-1#comment-49442 livius drusus Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:14:07 +0000 http://www.thehistoryblog.com/?p=6355#comment-49442 I've often wondered that about mushrooms myself. Maybe the lion's share of that work was done when we had better senses of smell, evolutionarily speaking, and the lore was more or less retained over hundreds of thousands of years. As for the mortar, ancients put all kinds of stuff in there to see what would happen. The Romans famously used volcanic ash to create concrete that would set under water. The Chinese are known to have experimented with everything from blood to fish oil. I’ve often wondered that about mushrooms myself. Maybe the lion’s share of that work was done when we had better senses of smell, evolutionarily speaking, and the lore was more or less retained over hundreds of thousands of years.

As for the mortar, ancients put all kinds of stuff in there to see what would happen. The Romans famously used volcanic ash to create concrete that would set under water. The Chinese are known to have experimented with everything from blood to fish oil.

]]> By: Philip Coggan http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/6355/comment-page-1#comment-49343 Philip Coggan Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:34:37 +0000 http://www.thehistoryblog.com/?p=6355#comment-49343 Just how did they originally discover that adding a little rice soup would be good for the mortar? "Whoops, spilt my breakfast!" "Never mind, gotta get busy, just go ahead and we'll see what happens..." Similarly with mushrooms: whoever conducted the field trials was either very brave or very lucky. Just how did they originally discover that adding a little rice soup would be good for the mortar? “Whoops, spilt my breakfast!” “Never mind, gotta get busy, just go ahead and we’ll see what happens…” Similarly with mushrooms: whoever conducted the field trials was either very brave or very lucky.

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