The Winslow mail. (Winslow, Ariz.) 1893-1926, 1925-04-17
CEMENT MAKING
ONLY LOST ART
REDISCOVERED

VI all the much discussed IOSC
arts" of antiquity, cement making
is the only one which has been re-
discovered in modern times.
For centuries scientists-real
and pseudo, puzzled over malleable
glass, which was a form of glass
said to have existed in the days
of Rome's grandeur and which
could be bent or worked like metal
without breaking.
Early historians had quite a little
to say about this substance, alleg-
ing that it was introduced to the
court of Nero by a Roman who had
been held prisoner in Africa. Ac-
cording to the account, the ex-pris
oner brought back glass goblet
which could be tossed about freely,
and could be Strengthened easily
whenever denied or crushed Mod
ern glass makers are skeptical of
the existence of such a glass at
any time, and all efforts to redis-
cover the art of making it, if there
completely.
That copper was tempered to the
hardness Of steel centuries ago is
now pretty we'll established. Cop-
per chisels have been found in
Peru of hardness far greater than
any which it is possible to impart
in this day, although modern metal
lurgists have tried diligently to find
a method, and in one or two in
stances it has been possible to
harden the metal slightly. Every
once in while some one announces
the rediscovery of the lost art, but
the fact that such claims are not
followed by the appearance of man
ufactured tempered copper on the
market is the best disproof of the
assertions. Could copper be tenn
pered to the hardness of steel there
is no doubt that manufacturers
would utilize it for some purposes
in which iron and steel labor under
disadvantages.
| y liz Wy VI CI1CAC11I 1 Z
are asserted by historians to have
evolved a shade of purple so beau
tiful that it was eagerly sought all
over Europe and Northern Africa
| by nations which had themselves
! progressed we'll in the art of dye
| ing. Except that the extraordinary
/ shade was obtained from CLANS or
other mussels, nothing is known of
it's manufacture, and all efforts to
reproduce it failed. With the fall
of Tyre the secret was lost and has
never been brought to light.
| Cement was discovered by the
/ Romans, who used it extensively
for the foundations of their trium-
phal arches and temples. Excava-
lions in the Forum clearly show on
the concrete marks of ancient
wooden forms, much as present
day concrete shows the same pat
terms. AS with Tyrian purple, the
art of cement making was lost
when Rome fell before the Vandals,
and during all the Dark Ages and
the Renaissance the secret re-
manned buried.
But enough information remained
so that some time prior to the
American Revolution investigators
in various parts of Europe began
to make cement of varying quail
ties in a small way. The first not
able use of cement in modern times
was in the Edystone Lighthouse off
the English coast. This was in
1856. 1t was also employed in the
Erie Canal about 1920.
These cements were much like
the Roman variety, which has stood
for nearly 1000 years. They were
made Of materials which nature had
already mixed in the proper pro-
portions. But in 1924 an English
man, Joseph Aspdin, succeeded in
making stronger cement from ma
terails which nature had not al
ready prepared for him. This he
called Portland cement, because it
resembled a durable building stone
from the Isle of Portland, used in
building Westminster Abbey.
A highly developed form of this
early portland cement is the ce-
ment of modern commerce, so that
| the secret of the ancient Romans
in this instance has not only been
! rediscovered, but also has been
improved upon.