... stupid science ~

On a more constructive note ...

I should have mentioned that a key to enjoying these walls is knowing a good way to cut into them when you want to.

Don't use anything like a jab saw, jigsaw, or reciprocating saw: the in-and-out violence will probably shake the plaster loose from the lath (especially from wood lath) in all directions from where you're doing the work.

I had the luxury to learn that from someone else's experience. Some prior owner had cut a bath fan into the ceiling here that way, leaving several strips of splintered lath pointing up into the attic, and just the plaster supporting itself in that region. I had to go up in the attic and cleanly cut off those broken strips and re-lath and replaster about a square foot around where the fan is.

For the win: RotoZip TC4 tile cutting bits.

I don't even have a RotoZip tool. The bits are 1/8" diameter and will fit my Dremel. (At the time I discovered them, Dremel didn't seem to have a similar bit in their own lineup, but now the Dremel 562 bit seems to be that.)

It will plunge in to start a cut anywhere you please, and let you surgically trace out whatever shape of cut you'd like, and being a rotary bit, it doesn't vibrate and shake anything loose. And it does not go dull quickly at all.

The same bit will also easily cut through either wood or metal lath, even though they don't advertise it for that, so you don't need any change of bit.

I like to make two passes, one only as deep as the plaster, exposing the lath, and then retracing to cut the lath. That way I can see what I'm doing, and slow down if any wisps of smoke curl up from 94 year old wood lath.

I do kind of feel sorry for anybody who needed to cut into plaster walls or ceilings before there were these bits.

With these, and with a little confidence that you can plaster back up whatever you've opened, plaster walls are fun.

Moving 90 ton stones with sound waves would also be fun, but I wonder about getting any structure so erected past the zoning board, within the confines of my lot. And cutting in new electrical outlets would probably be annoying there too. Some of these more modest techniques like carpentry and masonry and plastering may yet have their place when all of that is taken into account.

 

i know several people like the o/p. not matter what evidence you present, they just keep saying you're ignorant and being lied to.
they all post the same youtube videos from the same ct sites over and over. and they believe every mainstream news outlet, government, and other autorities are out to control the world. going back to the rockafellers, nazi's, jews and etc.
i think they are trained by their brainwashers on how to communicate the message.
they claim to love God, but hate their neighbor, unless their neighbor is another gun totin' redneck like themselves

 

That jackhammer leaves tool marks... There's no toolmarks in the stones that the pyramids and obelisks are built out of... And yes from a physics perspective sound waves can do some pretty impressive things:

"Cymatics is the science of how sound visibly creates matter. Typically, the surface of a plate or membrane is coated with a thin coating of particles or liquid such as sand or water, which is then exposed to various vibrations. Different visual patterns instantly emerge, depending on the geometry of the plate and the frequency the matter on it is exposed to. The video below is one of the most powerful demonstrations of sound affecting matter that I’ve seen. All of the science experiments in the video are real. While you’re watching this video, keep in mind that your physical body is matter, and is indeed composed of at least 70% water." https://www.soundsofsirius.com/sound-creates-matter/

 

Let's see.

• You posted a link to a site with several posters. The order of which has shuffled in the past 24hrs.
• Quoted two different posts from there, while presenting them as the same source.
• Included a photo from just one of posts.

It's linking a Priuschat thread, including some out of context, unattributed quotes, and expecting the reader to dig through it all to find the original posts.

Then those posts don't provide explanations for the images they include, and have no cites to back up their claims. This post from the link is just as valid,
"No they built them using the wind. Wind lifted the stones. The architect was a small cat. He was called the king of the potato people.

Ignore the fact that potatoes were indigenous to the America’s before the 16th century. A cat had the pyramids built using wind. Take my word for it."

The underlined part, were there really no tool marks, or were there no tool marks in the crystal skull. The lack of tool marks for that was part of its big mystery, but then someone applied some more up to date imagining techniques, and revealed tool marks. Which is what happen with the topic of the Roman cement. We didn't know the how on first investigation, but science and technology advances, enabling better understanding with another look.

The solution I've seen most used, including in my house, for electrical work is exposed conduits. One of my ceiling fan's base sits a junction box away from the ceiling.

What's your recommendation for covering the cracks from settling?

Looks like we got more than one poster here.

 

Bah humbug. Trickiest part with old work is fishing the wire through the wall or ceiling space, and that's no different whether you're cutting the outlet box hole in drywall with a jabsaw or in plaster with a RotoZip bit.

Boxes to hold a ceiling fan are a little more involved. They typically want to attach to framing members to support the weight. Some styles are easiest with attic access. I've seen an old-work style with a threaded expanding bar with spiky ends, so you can just poke it up through the hole you've made and then expand the spiky ends into the joists. They also don't really care how you made the hole. They might come pre-offset for a standard thickness like ½" drywall though, and not end up with the box edges exactly flush if your ceiling was laid up thicker or thinner. Some clever adaptation may be possible.

I'm assuming conventional construction where there *is* a wall cavity. I remember an old church building whose walls were literally two layers of brick, interior plaster applied right to the brick. No cavity whatsoever. That does limit the choices. An electrician had added a switch box on the wall surface, drilled through the brick, and run exposed conduit on the *outside* of the building.

I've got some of those. They probably date to the early years of the house when it was more actively settling.

On the belief that by now it's probably done most of the settling it's gonna do, I may get around to widening those up some with a RotoZip bit, and mixing up some plaster, and troweling it in, and making them intact walls again.

... and if my ambition holds up, then going ahead to scrape away the various prior owners' efforts to "cover" others like them, and doing the same thing.

 

This particular case has exposed box for the switch, and exposed conduit running between them

That might be the case with my exterior walls, or the cavity isn't deep enough for an receptacle box.

 

Egyptians had some large lemon batteries in jars but given the feudal nature of their society advancements such as that likely had minimal application or dissemination out into the world to be built upon. Generally curiosities like that found in ruins don’t have a matching instructional manual so their purpose can only be conjured, maybe gold plating?
Just dead end curiosities.

Oddly chunks of Egypts version of history still exist, some is geniology others fantastical, several libraries in antiquity were great losses even if there was a large amount of myth and legend.

The Spaniards during their inquisition years destroyed a “heathen” Island off the coast of Africa burning its library in the process .

more recently still you had WWII

And after that FloRida.

Sadly we are not as dissimilar to the Spanish Inquisition as I would like.

 

The conjecture here is about some advanced technology being used on a massive scale with less evidence than those ancient batteries.

A lot of knowledge has been lost, and some things still can't be explained, but some things have been deducted to a reasonable one. Maybe the ancients did have a better way. They were surely cleverer than what some give them credit for.

 

The op seemingly overlooks the impressive things you can do with unlimited free slave labor.

If he wants a more likely fantastical civilization he need only look to India
It had ancient reprints of other even more ancient texts that described mythical space vehicle’s fighting wars around the moon , weapons that could be misinterpreted as nuclear and even an instructional manual of how to fly the ancient mythical space vehicles.

Egypt wasn’t that creative and Ra certainly wasn’t Egyptian Ronald Reagan.

Being good at math, having standard units of measurement, surveying skills and unlimited free labor might seem magical but it’s just old fashioned sweat equity.

 

Legit science. Paper can be found here. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add1602

The New Atlas blurb about it was garbage and the MIT press release not much better.

Basically it is about the ability of excess lime grains in the cement mix to "glue closed" the micro-cracks in concrete and mortar when exposed to air and water even after thousands of years. Well 2K years anyway. Less water and a little lime/pozzy/fly ash make for a better mix but we knew that already. The study just confirms it for the old Roman mixes.

 

If you want a new idea?
Read an old book.....

 

My sense after reading it was that the key contribution was working out that the Romans got the stuff to have those specific sorts of lime clasts in it by hot mixing (mixing up the concrete with direct addition of quicklime instead of slaking the lime first). That was what led me to wonder about the Roman version of OSHA, but Trollbait suggested (in another thread) that they may have had an 'exempt' category for enslaved workers.

The title of the paper, anyway, is Hot mixing: Mechanistic insights into the durability of ancient Roman concrete.