Roman Super Glue

[Caratacus]

Who cares what it smells like - when you have slaves to do all that dirty work!

Wasn't is Vespasian who said: 'Money doesn't smell' when his son (Titus, I think) complained that they were charging people to use the public toilets!

I think that the pH of a 1M solution of ethanoic acid is around 5 - as you say, that shouldn't be a problem w.r.t. hydrolysis. I doubt that the vinegar they were working with would have been anywhere near to 1M, anyway.

Urine in pots? Ohhh yes! Amongst other things they used it to make ammonium alum, used in the dye industry to 'fix' colours (such as indigo and madder) onto textiles.

Caratacus
(Mike Thomas)

[marsvigilia]

So has anybody tried this yet. I too am thinking of trying some experiments.

One thing I do think is important is to know precisely what you are using so it can be replicated. There are different grades of bitumen with different viscosities.

Other than that I have a couple of bent ideas on how to make this work.

[jonwr]

Perhaps not the same kind of glue but one you can try.
Take the pitch you extracted from Birch bark add animal fat or Bees' wax
and some powdered charcoal.
This makes a Strong glue but is somewhat brittle when it sets up.
If you add a pinch of dried horse dung to the warm mix, the glue has the same adhesive qualities but is still a little soft when set up.
I use this glue to fix stone points to arrows and feathers for fletching when demonstrating Paleo crafts to school kids.
Jon R

[Triarius]

For this you can use Canadian balsam. This material is made by boiling the sap of the balsam, and that is probably what the Roman's used (European balsams or similar species, not all conifer saps can be used for this, and I've never heard of a deciduous tree that was used for such a purpose). You should be able to obtain it from any scientific supply house that sells supplies for geology labs. Ward Scientific used to carry it, as I think Cargille still may.