Lacey makes Popular Science Magazine

Frank, When the Engineering students do a car wash fund raiser be sure to pull in they do the best hand wash ever! A friend of mine has a pond near by where the concrete canoe race group practices!

 

Lacey, WA is a fast growing enclave of the state capital of Olympia. a few years ago, they were completely surrounded by Olympia but successfully annexed the NE corner called Hawks Prairie.

they were successful because Hawks Prairie is a finger peninsula sticking out the southern tip of Puget Sound with a lot of land that was zoned light industrial. unfortunately, its remoteness required someone to develop public access and ultilities. Lacey, one of the fastest growing cities in Washington, was quickly running out of space. Olympia was not willing to set money aside to develop the area so the judge allowed Lacey to annex the property from Olympia.

this acquistion now means Olympia surrounds Lacey on only 3 of 4 sides. at the current rate of growth, Lacey should outgrow Olympia in the next few years... not bad for a city that has yet to celebrate its 30th aniversary.

 

In Seville I used to jog along the path beside what used to be the Guadalquivir River, and is now a recreational canal (the river was diverted around the city). The canal is long, wide, and straight, and is open water all winter long, so rowing teams come from all over northern Europe to practice there. As the team rows its scull, the team coach rides a bicycle along the path (it's a big, wide path, shared by walkers, joggers, and bicyclists) shouting at his team through a megaphone. You hear all sorts of Slavic and Germanic sounding languages. Some of them use walkie-talkies instead of megaphones. I never saw any concrete rowing sculls. They're probably considered less efficient for some reason.

 

You might be surprised at how light these canoes were. The contest was between engineering departments around the state. They would then have a race. I think they had to hold 4 or 6 people. I understand that sometimes they would make the canoes so thin they would come apart during the race. Several of the test models did that as well the bits are still at the side of the pond. My son's Scout Troop used the same pond for training before our canoe trip.

 

actually the project listed in Polysci is pretty cool. didnt run very long, but i think someone who wasnt taking from only used, long-idled, well-worn parts might have a pretty cool item when done.

too bad the students didnt have the money to pursue the project a little farther. but all in all, not bad for an engineering department in a school with a student population smaller than 3 of the local high schools.

 

Okay. Are we really talking here about canoes made of concrete???

 

It more fun to say concreat canoes rather than Ferro Cement.

 

Okay, so it's not concrete in the usual sense. Not the same stuff sidewalks are made of.

 

special lightweight waterproof concrete?

 

Read about it here.

 

You take the fun out of everything! :huh: Yes concrete is not just concrete. On some of the broken canoes you can see the chicken wire etc used under the over lying layers. You can also see other stuff in the cement, long fiber glass fibers? I am not sure if they still do it but it is interesting. Given the size of the school they try very hard at everything they do.