See-through concrete

 awesomeness
Aug 312009
 

Now this is a nifty idea.

See-Through, Light-Transmitting … Concrete?!

Apparently normal concrete, but with the addition of light transmitting optical fibers. The result is a solid concrete block that will transmit a goodly fraction of the light hitting one side straight through to the other side. It would make terrible windows, but it’d make for great structural “skylights.”

The stuff is made by Litracon. The largest use of the stuff in the US so far is on the Iberville Parish Veterans Memorial in Lousiana.

 Posted by at 10:52 am

  4 Responses to “See-through concrete”

  1. 2Hotel9 says:
    August 31, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    A friend of mine did this using scraps of fiber optic cable from his job. He was going to use glass blocks to fill in all the street level windows in a building he bought for storage, and seeing other buildings with glass block windows partially busted out, decided to try this. It sort of worked. Stretched his cement a bit farther, but was a pain in the ass to do.

  2. JP says:
    August 31, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    couldnt you get a better effect with a large flat screen tv on the inside and a camera on the outside?

    Next up… Transparent Aluminum! Scotty holds up the mouse like a microphone “hello computer..”

  3. admin says:
    August 31, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    >couldnt you get a better effect with a large flat screen tv on the inside and a camera on the outside?

    Depends on the effect you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a simple solid structural wall that can be used to light up a room… then not so much.

    > Next up… Transparent Aluminum!

    Already got that. http://www.scifitv.com.au/Blog/2009/05/transparent-aluminum-star-trek-iv-was-right/

  4. JP says:
    September 1, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    Whoa

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