The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-03-21
THE USE OF CEMENT
A Paper on the Use of Cement as
Available in Building of County
Bridges and CuIyerts.

At the last Decatur County Farmers
Institute held at Lamont in December,
Mr.. Henry Ii. Flanagan, formerly OF
Garden Grove, now residing in Des
Moines, made an address on the use Of
cement including its use in building
bridges and culverts. Mr.. Flanagan is
an architect who has given the question
considerable study and speaks author
itatively on the subject. SO we'll pleased
were those who heard his address that
they requested him to prepare paper
on this subject, as his address was an
ilnpromptu one. He kindly consented
and we publish it in full.
AS time unrolls its perpetual calendar
of days, months, years and centuries, we
find similar changes in modes and condi
tons Of mankind. In medieval ages
the Knight, Warrior, General and King
were most adored of mankind. Now our
most adored OF men are our great States
men, scientific men and inventors. These
mea le5islate, investigate and invent as
necessity and occasions demand. Such
men as Watt, Stephenson, Hudson,
Morse, Bell and Edison have done more
for mankind and the true advance of
the world in general than all the bloody
Victories of ancient times.
Let us then, in this age of electricity,
motor cars aud Marcouiism, consider the
new Portland G, ment Industry in the
United States, which started with one
small plant in 1875 with an output of
300 barrels annually and last year found
over 80 plants with an output Of So
100000 barrels. Everybody is aware OF
the immense increase in the steel in
dustry, in the last % years, so let me
4 compare the cement industry during the
\ same length of time, with the steel
1880, Portland cement output, 42,0Ol
barrels, 1905, Portland cement output
320O0,000 barrels. 1880 pig iron output
3,SO0000 tons. 1905 pig iron output %,
100000 tons, that is, the pig iron ontpu
has increased six times. while the
cement production has increased Eight
Hundred times.
Why is this vast increase, which i:
one hundred and thirty times greater
than the increase of the steel produc
ton? AS lumber has gradually beef
getting scarcer and scarcer, year b,
yearand the trusts a greater hold OF
the forests, lumber has climbed from s.
to $40 per thousand to S2S to $50 TO
ship lap. Also the quality Of the lum
Der now is very poor, compared with thu
SOlU GWcllSy yCtlES ago. IOu VIII
say, what do YOU know of cement tina
warrants all this production and sale
Come then, and for our answer we will
go back to the Ancient City of Rome
Here they will show you bridge lai
up with lava dust ia natural cemen
when composed of melted lime stone
built 81 years before the birth of Chris
yet still standing and in good preserva
ton. The pyramids Pantheon and nun
erous other structures teach us tina
good concrete is as enduring as tim
itself.
| shall only speak of cement in goo
roads work in regard to it's uses
bridges and culvcrts alone. No road,
good road, if it has bad or dangerou
bridge. There is an old saying, partit
uarly applicable to people of nervou
temperament, they are continual
crossing these bad bridges before the
come to them. But each one of us wi
have to admit, however brave he ma
be, that there is a general sigh of relic
as each dangerous bridge is passed.
Three years ago, | did not comprehen
what the real meaning OF good road
was. But last spring / had to make
drive which impressed it firmly in IN
memory. started in a two seated ri
to drive over a road which in DIR
l ].