Historical Background Lime-based mortars are known to have been used in the ancient world - in Crete and Egypt,

in Greece, and throughout the Roman Empire. Both Greeks and Romans were aware of hydraulicity - that some volcanic earths or tiles, if finely ground and mixed with slaked lime and sand, produced a strong, waterresistant mortar. When broken bricks or lumps of pumice were added to the mortar the result was concrete. The Romans were aware that mixing and compaction were important, that high cement content alone did not guarantee a strong material, and that "rich" mixes were more subject to drying shrinkage than "lean" mixes. The great masses of surviving Roman concrete and mortar are evidence of the development which the material achieved in this period. The use of true pozzolanic hydraulic mortars and cements declined after Roman times, and it is not until the 14th century that some hydraulic mortars were again of quite high quality. In the 17th century Dutch "Tress", a volcanic material similar to pozzolana, was imported into Britain. From this point all references to mortars for marine works refer to the use of tress, which was apparently mixed with the lime in proportions of two parts lime to one of trass. 18th and Early 19th Century Developments Like the Romans, the mesons of the 18th century believed that only the purest of limes would make good mortar. This was true enough for air-dried mortar but not in the case of mortars for marine or underground work. In 1757 John Smeaton began experimenting in order to find a hard, quicksetting mortar suitable for construction of the Edystone Lighthouse. His work provided the first important advance in the knowledge of limes since Roman times and demonstrated several important points: I) a pure limestone did not necessarily make a better cement, ii) the clay in the limestone was the NM. Powter is a restoration architect with Restoration Services Division, DINA. This paper is based on this thesis "Conservation of Concrete in Fortifications and Gun Batteries" (York, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, 1979), which was prepared during a period of education leave from DINA in 1978-79.