The Great Wall

Of course, lime is no longer used to light up the stage, but it is still used today in an application that has been around for millennia—making concrete. In fact, the Great Wall of China is made of lime cement. 

Mortar, a mixture of lime, sand, and water, has been used in construction for thousands of years. The Appian Way, many early Roman and Greek buildings, and the Great Wall of China were constructed using mortar containing lime. In the Western Hemisphere, the Incas and Mayans used lime in mortar. The composition of mortar can vary rather widely, but the usual composition is about one-fourth lime, three-fourths sand, and a small amount of water to make the mixture into a paste. Essential ingredients are a solid such as sand and lime that is converted to Ca(OH)2 by reaction with water. 

Because of the recent rash of hurricanes like Katrina and tsunamis, we have become more aware of the need for protection against their violence. Geotextiles play a major role in this protection. Reinforced soil was used by Babylonians 3000 years ago in the construction of their pyramid-like tower, ziggurats. One of these famous towers, the Tower of Babel, collapsed. For thousands of years, the Chinese used wood, straw, and bamboo for soil reinforcement including the construction of the Great Wall. In fact, the Chinese symbol for civil engineering can be translated as earth and wood. The Dutch have made extensive use of natural fibrous materials in their age-old battle with the sea. The Romans employed wood and reed for foundation reinforcement. By the 1920s, cotton fabrics were tested as a... 

Wang Mingxing Winchester, J.W. Lii Welxlu Ren Lixin. Aerosol composition in a nonurban area near the Great Wall (in Chinese) Sclentla Atmospherica Slnlca (Daql Kexue) 1980, to be published. 

Clay was commonly used for making pottery in prehistory. Silts are sometimes used in ceramics and are a basic component in building materials such as mud daub, mud bricks, adobe, and fired brick. Sods, soil, and other sediments were used in the construction of earthworks by prehistoric peoples for walls, tombs, and other monuments. For example, the early civilizations of China used rammed earth to build house foundations and enormous city walls. Silt was packed down in wood frames using heavy wooden rammers and layer after layer built up. Parts of the Great Wall of China were built using rammed earth more than 2,000 years ago and remain standing today. 

Lime stabihsation of clay was used in Tibet, over 5 000 years ago, in the construction of the pyramids of Shersi. It was also used in conjunction with limestone by the Egyptians in the construction of the pyramids and by the Chinese when building the Great Wall. 

Figure 8-36. Fence on the Liberty Bridge in Budapest (a) and The Great Wall, off Beijing (b) with vertical symmetry planes. Photographs by the authors.

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Contact with the local service station of the Great Wall Auto Stock Corporation if the driver s side safety airbag module cannot be released. 

TravelChinaGuide.com. History of the Great Wall available at http //www.travelchinaguide.com/china great wall/(accessed October 23, 2008). 

Hawkes, Nigel. Structures TheWay Thin Are Built. 1990. Reprint. New brk Macmillan, 1993. Discusses many weU-known civil engineering projects. Chapter 4 contains information about seventeen projects, including the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal, and the Dutch Delta Plan. Contains illustrations and discussion of the effect of the projects. 

Manchus, the Liao (Khitan Tartars),Tungus, etc., invaded the Chinese Central Plains, they often would contract smallpox from contact with the Han people, and as a consequence would not dare attack south of the Great Wall... ... 

There was a considerable local variability in tsunami damage. Some of the most horrific video and photographs came from Miyako City, in the Taro area, where the population had felt safe behind a 10-m tsunami barrier known locally as the Great Wall of China . The barrier was over-topped and huge damage ensued (Fig. 15.3). 

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