Joseph Davidovits Quotes

Temperatures can be raised with energy released during exothermic... reactions. Copper and are commonly located in close proximity... A mixture of ... ...and ... ...heated to only to 700 °C ...automatically reaches a temperature, through a heat producing chemical reaction, that is close to that for extracting copper. The addition of a flux, which in Egypt was a native salt called (), lowered the fusion point sufficiently for copper extraction. Silver can be smelted similarly.

I am a research scientist specializing in low-temperature mineral synthesis. In 1972 I founded the private research company CORDI (Coordination and Development of Innovation), and, in 1979, the Geopolymer Institute, both in France. At the Geopolymer Institute a new branch of chemistry that I named ization. I currently have more than twenty-five international patents for geopolymeric products and processes. My products are made... by large manufacturers. The products have many diverse applications.

Mykerinos has a core... of agglomerated limestone and the first steps were covered with a casing... also made of split granite, not dressed [not cut].

For the god creation is the divine incarnation in the agglomeration of stone.

Nile was used for making sun-dried mud bricks and various minerals were used to make enamels. was a sacred product not only used for flux, but also for mummification and deification rites.

The second verb is... khusi that means to erect, to build, to construct, and you see that the verb has a determinative that is a man pounding something in a mold. So this is the making of agglomerated stone. This is the making of bricks, and this is the making of stone.

Geopolymeric products range from advanced materials to simple, yet highly sophisticated cements. The geopolymeric cements are made with inorganic chemical reactions in which alumina and silica materials are integrated to form synthetic s, secondary rock-forming minerals.

... form[s]... one of the major areas of materials science. ...Inorganic chemistry concerns basic molecules such as s, metals, s, and minerals. ...[M]ost of the raw materials for geopolymer synthesis are rock-forming minerals. ...There are numerous reasons for being interested in mineral polymers, more specifically in geopolymers. One is to get fire and heat properties that cannot be covered by organic materials. Another is the bridge... between polymer science and ceramics.

All available stones... possessed sacred, eternal qualities. ...[A]ll living things perish ...the imposing rocks and cliffs stood eternally. ...[S]tone was symbolic of the eternal realm. ...[S]tone materials were devoted exclusively to religious monuments and sacred funerary paraphernalia. ...intended to survive for eternity.

[T]he pyramid blocks are not natural stone; the blocks are actually exceptionally high-quality concrete—synthetic stone—cast directly in place. The blocks consist of... ninety to ninety-five percent limestone rubble and five to ten percent cement. ...imitations of natural limestone, made in the age-old tradition of alchemical stonemaking. No stone cutting or heavy hauling was ever required...

[S]uitable ingredients were available in... millions of tons. Mud from the Nile... contains alumina and is well suited for low-temperature mineral synthesis. The salt is extraordinarily abundant in the deserts and salt lakes.

[W]e observe a dramatical stop of the technology. ...[T]he variation of the pyramids' volume with time... from the invention by Djoser to the Cheops pyramid, that is ...within 60 years, we have an increase in the volumes ...optimum by Cheops and Chephren, and then a dramatic plunge... of the volume ...by Mykerinos, and the others are ridiculously small. What happened?

[L]ime is very important and it has been shown by [(1990) Professor D.D.] Klemm: "...in the VI. Dynasty lime disappears nearly within the mortars. May this be interpreted as a variation in the accessibility of fuel [of wood] and consequently of economic potential and crisis?" ...He was talking about the regular lime that is calcined from limestone in a kiln. ...[W]e have not found any remains of kilns... to manufacture the pyramids of Cheops and Chephren. We need... 150,000 tons of lime, which means that we should have found remains of kilns. We did not... which means that the technology was different. ...[I]t was the one of ashes that contains lime... The ecological disaster came from the over-exploitation of wood... proven by the fact that just after the Great Pyramids, one gets frescoes... describing famines...

Advanced technology plays no part in the production of s. ...An individual of the could produce geopolymers... [with] the knowledge that comes from intelligent, repeated observation and experimentation with substances found...

[P]lants were supplying a lot of chemicals during antiquity and even during our Middle Ages in Europe. ...If we look... at the results of the burning of wood or plants, ...we get plenty of SiO₂... plenty of CaO () in beech, oak, acacia, palm trees. Plenty of alkali (K₂O) in fern and bulrush... which means I am claiming... [the Egyptians] used the plants and the woods in the manufacture of these ashes... the sources of their chemicals.