Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-29

is a dash of romance and a fairy
story theme in the commonplace
thug of the concrete mixer. Every
n is c~onversant with the ordinary
uses of Portland cement. Perhaps
the first Impressions of this mater
ial date back to the d tights of &C -
ing on a bicycle over the even sur
face of a cement sidewalk-back in
days when cement sidewalks were
considered more or less of a luxury.
Perhaps it was a cellar floor. or a
foundation, or the sight of workmen
mixing cement mortar. Years ago
cement was an established member
of the construction family, but the
development of its uses during the
asst few years has been so varied
and remarkable that it is doubtful if
, the average citizen has even the re-
hottest idea of it.
The historical incident which
brought about the need for Portland
cement was the construction of the
Eddystone Lighthouse in the English
| Channel IN 1855 by an engineer
named John Smeaton, who while
looking for a mortar for this pur-
pose discovered that an impure lime
stone containing a certain mount of
clayey matter contained hydraulic
kiOPOllACS "AlCl SatS1ACot VI OdSlCa.
The cement used by Smeaton mark
ed the beginning of modern cement
making practice, but the early CO.
ments were different from the Port
land cement of today, for natural
cements depend on nature to pre-
pare their material and are conse-
quently restricted to the rocks hav-
ing the proper proportions of mate
rails in their makeup, and any va
ration in the composition canno be
regulated.
Smeaton's discovery apparently
stimulated inter est in the industry.
About 1895 James Parker of North
fleet, England, patented a. process
for manufacturing cement by turn
ing impure limestone almost to vitri-
dcation in ordinary lime kilns, and
grinding the resulting clinker to
powder. He gave this material the
name of Roman cement. In France
there had been experimentation
along similar lines.
The first recorded manufacture of
this product in the United States was
in 1919 in Madison county, N. Y,
for the Erie Canal project and vas
developed by Benjamin Wright and
Canvass White. All of the above ce-
ments may be classed as natural ce-
L IIiClt DtCduSc they WeIt PEepdIto ny
burning a natural rock without pre-
the. burned product to a fine pow
der.
Almoot a Century Old
Almost 100 years ago, in 1924, a
brick layer of England. Joseph Asp
din, took out a patent for what he
called Portland cement He gave it
this name because when hardened
it resembled the famous stone found
on the Isle of Portland off the coast
of England. Aspdin's patent speci-
fled that definite amounts of clay
and limestone be used. and described
the process of matchmaking and
clarifying these two materials in the
manufacture of his product. This
constitutes the distinction between
natural and Portland cements.
Few attempts were made to pro-
duce Portland cement in the United
State until about 1870. During the
70's. however. plants were operated
at several points, including Wam-
pun and Coplay, Pa, Kalamazoo
Mich; South Bend. Ind, and Rock
port, Me.
The remarkable growth of the IN
dustry, and the consequent develop
ment of new uses for the material is
DCol okloWh by tiC diiiAdoA oulPdG lN
ures. In 1880 production of Port.
land cement in the United State:
was only $4,000 barrels: in 1890 il
was S35, 900 barrels; in 1900, S.4S2,.
020, barrels; in 1910, 76.54s.9 5 bar
rels and in 1920, 100. 5000 barrels
One hundred million barrels o
cement-the 1920 output--would b.
sufficient to build nine transc- atinen
tai highways, 8 inches thick and II
feet wide, from New York to San
Francisco. Or it would build 1000,
900 six-room concrete houses with
porch and sidewalk thrown in. y
lit would build 23h great pyramid
like those of Egypt. Or it woul'
build a sidewalk 5 feet wide and
inches thick that would reach fror
Washington to the dis
lance of 243.000 miles.
The quantity of the output I
shown by the fact that in 1921 tn
industry required nearly 100000
tons of coal. The amount of Goa
burned in manufacturing a barrel 0
cement varies from $50 to 90
pounds. SO that when purchasing
sack OF cement the consumer l
paying for nearly SO pounds of coal
Almost anyone who builds now