Secrets We Have Lost.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 26, 26 June 1912, Page 47

Secrets We Have Lost.

Ihe secret of the ancient Homan cement is once more a topic- of discussion since the fall of a few yards of Roman wall at Caerwent in England. The fall was due to a movement of the subsoil.

and not to the decay of the wal'l itself, 'there are still several hundred miles of the Roman walls to be seen in England and they’ seem to be as strong as the day they were built. An expert of the London Museum quoted by the New York Sun says: “We do not know the method of its composition, but it is far sounder than any modern cement. Indeed when •some part of such a wall has to be dislodged it is necessary- to use dynamite. All we know is that pounded tile is a considerable element in the cement. For the rest, Roman walls are built with stone and tile from a. concrete bottom.” The confession seems a little ignominious for this particular stage of human progress, but perhaps if we were quite honest with ourselves we should admit that antiquity- possessed a good many secrets that we. have lost, and among them the tempering of copper, the . moving without machinery of enormous stones, and the calculation of star movements without insruments.