The Low-down on Lime.

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,276
3,068
67
Pembrokeshire
An excellent article.
Lots of limekilns around here and while doing repairs on our cottage I had to peel off many layers of limewash to get down to the stone.
Some layers had been coloured with yellow ochre, others were just white.
 

Greg

Full Member
Jul 16, 2006
4,335
259
Pembrokeshire
I came across a massive kiln on a day trip out not so long ago...biggest one I have ever seen!
I'll try to dig out the pics I took and post them..
 

Badger74

Full Member
Jun 10, 2008
1,424
0
Ex Leeds, now Killala
Was interesting but a bit of his info was wrong, quicklime is not flammible. I've been working with it for 20 years and none of my machines have burst into flames or the tankers delivering it around the country to us haven't either.
 

steve a

Settler
Oct 2, 2003
821
14
south bedfordshire
Was interesting but a bit of his info was wrong, quicklime is not flammible. I've been working with it for 20 years and none of my machines have burst into flames or the tankers delivering it around the country to us haven't either.

Never known it to burst into flames either, it can burn your skin by alkali burns and it does give off heat when added with water but not flames, maybe he meant Limelight, used in stage lighting back in the day but you need to heat it up a bit to get that effect.

Couple of other bits in the article I'm not too sure about as well, most concrete structures are designed on a 50 or 120 year design life so as for not lasting 10years is a tad wrong but those Romans were a clever lot, using PFA in concrete and also pumice as a lightweight aggregate allowed them to construct some impressive buildings, especially some of the unsupported domes.
 

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