Slaking Lime

As an offshoot of our U3A geology group a few of us enjoyed a visit to the Scottish Lime Centre in Charlestown, Fife. This is a centre of expertise on all things lime-related and where courses and advice are available worldwide to anyone, amateur and professional alike.

After a detailed talk about the making, uses and advantages of lime, particularly lime mortar, and the misuses of cement in older buildings, we watched a demonstration of quicklime (the product of the lime kiln) being converted to slaked lime (for use as mortar or lime putty etc.). This is achieved by adding it to water (never add water to lime!) which is a strongly exothermic reaction, causing the mix to bubble and plutter in a most satisfying way, with an ensuing release of steam.

The limekilns themselves (of the draw kiln type, which operated in constant production) opposite the harbour where the lime was exported, are deteriorating but we took a good look inside the larger ones and a few of us discovered that there is nothing but scrub on the upper level so did not fall into any feeder holes. This account may explain how limekilns work.

We returned home to a blazing sunset but the bubbling lime makes the blip.