From: Jeffrey Fabijanic (jeff@primordialsoft.com)
Date: Fri May 07 1999 - 10:33:55 MDT
Dwayne wrote:
>> > The vitrified forts in ireland?
>>
>> You mean the mounds? Pure human drudgery moving earth.
>
>If you don't know what I am referring to, please refrain from
>commenting. *Obviously* I would not bring up mounds of earth
>in such a discussion now, would I?
>
>No, not mounds of earth, forts made of rock which has been
>heated up and fused into glass.
I believe the "virtrified forts" are primarily features of *Scotland*, not
Ireland (although there are a couple sites there as well). There have been
several experiments which have recreated the fusing of granite blocks using
quite simple stack-and-cook techniques. Note that the blocks are not
completely glassed - only the outer layer of the stones are fused.
Fwiw, when I was in 8th grade, our social studies/history teacher had us
build a "charcoal mound" as part of our instruction in early Colonial
American economics. It took less than a week for a few dozen 13 year olds
to cut sod and cedar wood, stack it into a mound a story high, fire it with
coal and let it smoulder and rend the wood. We watched it carefully, and
pulled off many gallons of kerosene during that time. At the end of the
smoulder, we tore down the sod, and pulled out several hundred pounds of
high-quality charcoal, which would have been suitable for firing glass -
glass making was the BIG industry in early colonial America (we sold the
charcoal and the kerosene to a local dealer to help fund our class field
trip). The stainless steel grating (used to hold the ten pounds of starter
coal), which had been approximately one meter square and made of 1cm thick
rods, was melted into a puddle of slag at the bottom of the pile; and the
rock under the pile (cntrl NJ slate and gneiss mix) was fused. Clearly, a
similar method could be adapted to fire a stone wall at high temperature.
The ancients were as smart and clever as we (perhaps more so at times), and
I have no doubt that there is knowledge and technique that we once knew,
and do not know now. But I think that stone building techniques are not
likely amongst them. Look instead to botanical and psychological lore. And
personally, I think of these less as "Lost Secrets of the Ancients!" (cue
incidental music) and more as "Poorly Recorded Trade Secrets of People Who
are Dead Now"!
- j
| Jeffrey Fabijanic, Designer The Future exists,
| Primordial Software first in Imagination,
| "Software of the First Order" then in Will,
| Boston, MA * (617) 983-1369 and finally in Reality.
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