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LitraCon hopes to be selling light transmitting concrete later this year. Amazing looking stuff. Via optics.org
"Thousands of optical glass fibers form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of every block," explained its inventor Áron Losonczi. "Shadows on the lighter side will appear with sharp outlines on the darker one. Even the colours remain the same. This special effect creates the general impression that the thickness and weight of a concrete wall will disappear."
Saw this at the National Building Museum a couple years ago, awesome stuff. Definitely makes the concrete seem light and airy. You could, of course, make this with concrete and optical fiber, but it might also work with fishing line for much cheaper. Then again, it might not. Anyone made their own?
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Hmm, fishing line might work, but probably not for too long. I'd imagine that over time, the ends of the fibres, being so soft would eventually scratch, the scratches would fill with dirt and the bricks become opaque. Now, the same might eventually happen with the real glass-fibre filled bricks, but I'll bet they'd last a lot longer.
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And at night, everybody will see inside ! Good idea ;)
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Did they invent light-transmitting paint, too? Because every inhabited concrete-block structure I've ever encountered has been painted, at least on the side where the people spent most of their time.
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Reminds me of these funky little rocks given away as souvenirs at the Borax company visitor center in Boron, CA. This stuff would be pretty neat to design with.
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You already can buy stuff like this:
http://www.luccon.com/index3.htm
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Next will be transparent aluminum.
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But how often do you need to transport whales??
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With a bit more work, this will revolutionize clandestine grow rooms everywhere!
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Here's another company, selling products made of light-transmitting concrete:
http://www.lucem.com or http://www.robatex.com
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