The Florence daily tribune., 1900-11-06
PORTLAND CEMENT.
A Florence Product, and Its Cen
eral Importance.

Colorado, with its immense min
eral resources, fertile valleys and
scenic parks, the former support
ing numerous mills and smelters,
and the latter offering a veritab BILE
paradise for the agriculturalist
and stockman, is also most in
viting section for the blishment
of many new lines Of manufactur-
ing. AS a natural result of this
condition of affairs, new enter
prises representing variols branch
es of trade, are located as soon as
it can be demonstrated that the
demand for their respective pro-
ducts has reached the point where
1t will justify the investment of
the requisite amount of capital.
One of the most important in
dustries recently established in
this state for which the Rocky
mountain region offers a very adj
vantageous field of operations, is
the manufacture of Portland ce-
ment, With each succeeding year
the demand for Portland cement
has steadily increased in the
United States, and yet is even now
being used in European countries
for many purposes which have not
as yet been thought about on this
side of the Atlantic.
Portland cement is so called
owing to its near resem blance to
Portland stone, popular English
building stone, obtained on small
island near the coast of Great Brit
ain. Originally all the cement
used in the United States was i'm
ported from that country, where
its manufacture was kept a secret
and stringent measures adopted to
guard against the process and
formula becoming known outside.
This remained the case until the
Germans improved upon the pro-
cess of manufacture and COM
menced shipping a product into
this country which supplanted the
English article on account of its
evident superiority.
However, about dozen years
ago, upon the discovery that there
could be found an abundance of
raw material in this country, Amer
leans took the matter up and with
their characteristic energy and in
genuity, succeeded in turning out
cements which at once took the
place of the German product, and
have continued to do so ever since.
Ten years ago the United States
used annually 2,500,0OO barrels of
Portland cement and of his amount
but 100000 were of domestic man
ufacture, exclusive of natural ce-
ments. The demand has grown
SO rapidly, however, that at the
present time 100000 barrels are
used annually, and 5,500,00O bar
rels of this amount is supplied by
home manufacturers, This enor-
nous increase in the consumption
is due almost entirely to the many
new purposes for which cement
has been found to be adapted, and
superior to other materials, and it
has been met almost entirely by
American production. Very few
persons realize the extent to viii ch
Portland cement necessarily enters
into the construction of buildings
as well as numerous other modern
improvements, adding strength,
dura bility and beauty.
a peculiar fact about this pro-
duct is that the longer it is exposed
to the air the harder it becomes. |
The famous Appian Way, of Rome,
paved with cement and stone 1000
years ago, is an evidence of this,
for while the stone today has qrum-
blsd away, owing to the action of
The elements, the cement work in
which it was embedded, remains