... since those remote days, it is still used in modern building projects - from foundations for giant telescope mountings, to nuclear power stations, to sky-scrapers in Manhattan and Tokyo, to garage and patio floors, roads and railway sleepers, shore protectors against wave action, dam walls, and settings for the poles of washing lines and chicken runs. The fundamental chemistry is much the same in all cases, although the concrete itself may be modified in a variety of ways to adapt its properties to an enormous diversity of modern requirements. Modern concrete, very much like its earliest form used by our remote ancestors, is a mixture of cement, or a cement-like substance, with sand, stones and water. The water is added to the dry components to initiate the chemical changes leading to hardening, after which the strength and durability of the material is comparable to some of the hardest rocks. But, unlike ...

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