Support Your Local Cinder-Block

So, you want me to support a cinder-block with just newspaper and some glue?

I have to admit I was a bit concerned at first, as I both tried to remember if I'd heard this joke before or had accidentally managed to land in some kind of engineering class. However, after it's initial shock, my brain kicked back into gear and began chugging out ideas.

I knew I would need a strong foundation, which would mean I'd have to find a way to make a normally flimsy material rigid. My first idea was to use the glue to coat the paper in a papier mache fashion. Unfortunately, it seems that having masking tape is a rather key aspect of the whole process.

Scrapping this idea, I thought instead of somehow folding or rolling the paper to reinforce it and make it thicker, and thus stronger. After scrapping several folding attempts rather quickly, I found that rolling tubes of newspaper was the best approach. To make it the most stable, I rolled tubes within tubes, and ended up with a very sturdy column.

If I had the project to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing, though I would be able to make the column taller with more time.