AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG

www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

TOPIC HIGLIGHTED

GRAPHICAL TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENT

THE PYRAMIDS (3000 BC)

RIDDLE OF ROMAN CONCRETE (300 BC – 476 AD)

GREAT WALL OF CHINA (200BC)

JOHN SMEATON’S EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE (1793)

JOSEPH ASPDIN – TRUE FOUNDER OF PORTLAND CEMENT? (1824)

MONIER - FATHER OF REINFORCED CONCRETE (1867)

INTRODUCTION OF ROTARY KILN (1886)

ALVORD LAKE BRIDGE (1889)

GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW – PAVING THE WAY (1891)

HOOVER DAM (1936)

ASSEMBLY HALL – LARGEST REINFORCED DOME STRUCTURE (1963)

FIRST TALLEST REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING (1992)

TEXTUAL TIMELINE
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

GRAPHICAL TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENT

 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

1963
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

THE PYRAMIDS (3000 BC)

The techniques used to construct Egypt's pyramids are thought to have initially
been developed by trial and error. During the earliest period, the pyramids
were constructed wholly of stone. Then poor quality limestone replaced granite
as the chief building material. In–filling with loose rubble was also used for the
first time.

Limestone is coarse grained with yellow to greenish gray shading. In order to

quarry this stone, the blocks were marked out with just enough space in between
each to allow for a small passageway for the workers to cut the blocks. The
workmen would use a number of different tools to cut the blocks. The finer, white
limestone employed in the pyramids and mortuary temples was not as easy to
quarry, and had to be found further from the building site. This laid stone buried
further from the surface, so tunnels had to be dug in order to reach the actual
stone quarry. Sometimes these deposits were as deep as fifty meters, and huge
caverns had to be built to reach the quarry. Generally, large chunks of stone
were removed, and then finely cut into blocks. The blocks were then moved to
the building site on large wooden sledges pulled by oxen. The path they took
would be prepared with a mud layer from the Nile in order to facilitate the moving.

Pyramid construction techniques evolved again. Most pyramids built at the later
stage time were little more than mountains of mud brick encased in a veneer of
polished limestone. Mudbricks of course were made throughout Egypt and were
a common building material everywhere, in common homes and palaces and
probably many city buildings. The better mudbricks were fired, or "burnt" in an
oven, though it was not uncommon for mudbrick not to be fired, and so not as
durable. Unfortunately, most structures built of mudbrick have not weathered the
ravages of time well. They were built using wooden forms and Nile mud mixed
with various fillers.

How to Build Pyramids?

The pyramids are built from primitive low quality concrete as follows:

1. Grind lime into fine powder.

2. Dry under scorching Egyptian sun.
3. Transport powder in bags to the building site.
4. Construct wooden casing box for first concrete block of pyramid.
5. Lay out casing inside with mats.
6. As wood is rare in Egypt and must be reused many times; primitive cane
mats are abundant and be used instead.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

7. Transport water, sand, pebbles and small stones to the pyramid-building

site.

8. Fill casing with sand and small stones, pebbles, and bits of calcium; add
water, mix, and let concrete set under scorching sun.
9. Dismantle casing when concrete has in order to reuse every precious
board for the casing of the next block.
10. Put a layer of lime on the top of every concrete block to separate blocks.
Pyramid must "breathe" in such hot climate.
11. In order to make the pyramid look gleaming white and shiny, white
limestone was cut and covered the pyramid.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

RIDDLE OF ROMAN CONCRETE (300 BC – 476 AD)

Ancient Roman concrete has withstood the attack by elements for over 2,000
years. The basic construction techniques of the Romans must be better than
those of modern practice as judged by comparing the products. Roman concrete
consisted of just three parts: a pasty, hydrate lime; pozzolan ash from a nearby
volcano; and a few pieces of fist-sized rock. If these parts were mixed together in
the manner of modern concrete and placed in a structure, the result certainly
would not pass the test. Above all, this building humbles the modern engineer not
only in its artistic splendor, but also because there are no steel rods to counter
the high tensile forces such as we need to hold modern concrete together.

Solving the riddle of ancient concrete

consisted of two studies: to understand
the chemistry and the other was
determining the placement of ancient
concrete. People of the Middle East
made walls for their fortifications and
homes by pounding moist clay
between forms, often called pise
work. To protect the surfaces of the
clay from erosion, the ancients
discovered that a moist coating of
thin, white, burnt limestone would
chemically combine with the gases in
the air to give a hard protecting
shied. The event of discovering
pseudo concrete occurred some 200
years before Christ when a lime
coating was applied to a wall made of
volcanic, pozzolanic ash near the town
of Pozzuoli in Italy. A chemical
reaction took place between the
chemicals in the wall of volcanic ash
(silica and small amounts of alumina
and iron oxide) and the layer of lime
(calcium hydroxide) applied to the wall. Later they found that mixing a little
volcanic ash in a fine powder with the moist lime made a thicker coat, but it also
produced a durable product that could be submerged in water- something that
the plaster product of wet lime and plain sand could not match.

To explain this chemical difference we must examine the atomic structure.

Common plaster is made with wet lime and plain sand. This sand has a
crystalline atomic structure whereby the silica is so condensed there are no
atom holes in the molecular network to allow the calcium hydroxide molecule
from the lime to enter and react. The opposite is true with the wet lime-pozzolan
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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contact. The pozzolan has an amorphous silica atomic structure with many
holes in the molecular network. Upon mixing the wet lime with the pozzolan, the
calcium hydroxide enters the atomic holes to make a concrete gel that expands,
bonding pieces of rock together. The fine powder condition of the pozzolan
provides a large surface area to enhance chemical reaction. Parts of the complex
chemistry of the ancient concrete bonding gel matching the same chemical
formula of modern concrete bonding gel. So the pozzolan-wet lime gel gave
permanence to the ancient concrete.

Explaining the placement of ancient concrete solved the second part of the
riddle. Chemistry alone will not make good concrete. Studies of the placement
process are very important in making durable concrete. The ancients hand
mixed their components (wet lime and volcanic ash) in a mortar box with very
little water to give a nearly dry composition; carried it to the job site in baskets
placing it over a previously prepared layer of rock pieces; and then proceeded to
pound the mortar into the rock layer. Vitruvius, the noted Roman architect (cir.
20 BC) mentioned this process in his history formulas for his concrete, plus the
fact that special tamping tools. Close packing of the molecular structure by
tamping reduced the need of excess water, which is a source of voids and
weakness. But also close packing produces more bonding gel than might be
normally expected. Again, there is a similarity in the ancient and roller compacted
concrete practices, which is that of tightly compacting the materials in their
placement. It is learned that ancient concrete was a simple mixture of wet lime
and pozzolan in specific ratios to match the desires of the Roman architect. The
Romans followed a placement method of tamping their stiff mortar into the voids
of a rock layer.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

GREAT WALL OF CHINA (200BC)

The material to build up the Great Wall is different in

different areas. At the beginning, the Great Wall was
mainly made of earth, stones and wood. Due to the
large quantity of materials required constructing the
Great Wall, the builders tried to use local resources.
When they built over the mountain ranges, the stones
of the mountain were exploited and used. In the plains,
earth was tamped to construct the wall. In the desert,
even the sanded reeds and juniper tamarisks (a type
of shrub) were used. In Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall
was basically built by stamping layers of rammed
earth. Scientists have found a foundation comprises a
layer of raw earth, over 1.5 meters thick at the bottom,
with further loess above, some three meters thick. The wall was built on this
foundation from layers of tamped-earth. The tamped-earth process began with a
simple wooden frame. Workers filled the frame with loose earth, which was then
tamped into a compact layer 4 inches thick. The process was repeated layer
upon layer, and the wall slowly rose four inches at a time. Detritus (stone
fragments and silt) was mixed into the wall to make it more solid.

The period of Han Dynasty, earth or crude stones were still popular. The
construction material did not reach a new level until the middle of the Ming
Dynasty. However, three hundred million cubic meters of earthwork were used in
the construction of the Great Wall, and with the emergence of brick and lime
workshops, some parts were also built with these new materials. Bricks were
more convenient than earth and stone owing to its small size, light weight and
convenient to carry. In Ming Dynasty, the greatest advancement made was that
the wall was built with a tamped-earth (interior) and kiln-fired bricks and
stone slabs forming the outer layers. The workers mixed lime and sticky rice
as a mortar filled between the bricks. This form of cement made the wall solid.

Along the stretch, a beacon tower was built. Solders lit

straw and wolf dung on beacon tower for signal fires, to
warn defenders of an attack. One column smoke lit
meant an outpost was being threatened by a force of
fewer than 500 troops and two meant an attacking force
of fewer than 3,000. The beacon towers were built by
laying a bed of red willow reeds and twigs at the
bottom of a wooden frame. Then, they filled the frame
with a mixture of water and fine gravel, which was
tamped. When the mixture had thoroughly dried, the
wooden frame was removed, leaving behind a solid slab
of tamped earth, strengthened by the willow reeds just
like steel rods in modern reinforce concrete.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

JOHN SMEATON’S EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE (1793)

The Eddystone Lighthouse is situated

some 9 miles (15 km) South West of
Rame Head Cornwall, England on the
treacherous Eddystone Rocks
50°10.802N 04°15.902W. The first was
an octagonal wooden structure created
by Henry Winstanley and the light was
first lit on 14 November 1698. It lasted five
years before the Great Storm of 1703
erased almost all trace of it on 27
November, killing Winstanley in the
process. The second lighthouse was
designed by John Rudyard as a conical
wooden structure and was first lit in 1709. It survived until 2 December 1755
when it was destroyed by fire. The third lighthouse, known as Smeaton's
Tower, was perhaps the most notable as it marked a major step forward in the
design of such structures. Recommended to the task by the Royal Society, civil
engineer John Smeaton pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of
concrete) and developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the
building of the lighthouse (1756-1759)

Hydraulic lime

Hydraulic lime is a variety of slaked lime (a traditional name for calcium

hydroxide) used to make mortar. It is produced by heating (calcining) limestone
that contains clay and other impurities that enable it to set without exposure to
air. It is used for providing a faster initial set in more extreme conditions
(including under water).
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

JOSEPH ASPDIN – TRUE FOUNDER OF PORTLAND CEMENT? (1824)

Joseph Aspdin (1788 – 20 March 1855) was a British

mason, bricklayer and inventor who patented a
process for making Portland cement on 21 October
1824. However, his cement was not Portland cement
but an artificial hydraulic lime similar to the material
known as "Roman Cement" which was patented in
1796 by James Parker. Aspdin's process was similar to
that patented in 1822 and used since 1811 by James
Frost who called his cement "British Cement". Cement
had been discovered in ancient times but it had been
lost since the fall of the Roman Empire. The eldest son
of a Leeds bricklayer, he began using artificial cements
made by burning ground limestone and clay together.
He named it 'Portland' as he thought its colour resembled Portland stone.
This first true artificial cement was the first real improvement on cement since
John Smeaton had made the first modern concrete by mixing powdered brick
and adding pebbles as aggregate back in 1756.

Aspdin established his first cement works at Kirkgate in Wakefield (1825-1838),

and then built a new works on the same site in 1843. The following year, he
retired and the business was taken over by his first son, James. James's younger
brother William was also involved in cement manufacture, setting up his own
business in Rotherhithe, London in 1841. William Aspdin falsely claimed that
his father's cement was employed by Sir Marc Brunel in his Thames Tunnel –
this was probably the first major civil engineering project to use such cement.
Brunel's diaries show that the cement used was "Roman Cement" made by
Francis and Whyte. In 1853 William Aspdin fled his creditors and went to
Germany where he was involved with several cement works of which the last one
developed as the foundation for the Alsen Group which was a large exporter to
USA and also Australia prior to 1900.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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MONIER - FATHER OF REINFORCED CONCRETE (1867)

The first use of iron reinforced concrete was by the French builder François
Coignet in Paris in the 1850s. Coignet's own all-concrete house in Paris (1862),
the roofs and floors reinforced with small wrought-iron I beams, still stands. But
reinforced concrete development began with the French gardener Joseph
Monier's 1867 patent for large concrete flowerpots reinforced with iron wire.
Monier, a commercial gardener, experimented with iron-wire reinforcement for
his cement and concrete tubs and basins. He patented the idea in 1867 and
exhibited his invention the same year at the Paris Exposition. It soon occurred to
him, as it did to François Hennebique, to extend its application to other
engineering structures, such as railway ties (sleepers), to pipes, and to floors,
arches, and bridges.

He was not the first to conceive the combination of metal wires or rods
embedded in concrete, but, despite his lack of technical training, he showed a
remarkable intuitive grasp of the new material. In Monier's patented designs
the basic principle of reinforced-concrete structural members was clearly
established: the concrete slab or girder took most of the compressive forces, and
the embedded metal wire took most of the tensile forces. The two elements
acted as a unit; and although it was many years before the theoretical basis for
the new material could be laid, structural applications multiplied rapidly,
especially in Europe
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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INTRODUCTION OF ROTARY KILN (1886)

The rotary kiln is a type of industrial dryer employed to reduce the moisture
content of the material it's handling by bringing it into direct contact with heated
gas. The kiln is made up of a large, rotating cylindrical tube, usually supported
by concrete columns or steel beams. The kiln slopes slightly so that the
discharge end is lower than the material feed end in order to convey the material
through the kiln under gravity. Material to be dried enters the higher end of the
kiln, and as the kiln rotates, the material is lifted up by a series of internal fins
lining the inner wall of the kiln. When the material gets high enough to roll back
off the fins, it falls back down to the bottom of the kiln, passing through the hot
air stream as it falls.

This air stream can either be moving toward the discharge end from the feed end
(known as a co-current rotary kiln), or toward the feed end from the discharge
end (known as a counter-current rotary kiln). The air stream can be made up of a
mixture of air and furnace exhaust fumes (known as a direct heated kiln) or
simply hot air (known as an indirect-heated kiln, which generally carries a lesser
risk of causing product contamination). The rotary kiln is also capable of calcining
the material, or mixing two or materials, and sometimes stimulating a reaction
between two or more materials. The rotary kiln is commonly used in the cement
industry to cause a key reaction between two of its major components.

A limekiln is a kiln used to produce quicklime by the calcination of limestone

(calcium carbonate). The chemical equation for this reaction is:

CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2

Although limekilns were used in the production of lime mortar in Ancient Egypt
and later by the Greeks and Babylonians, the Romans favored instead to
produce their mortars from pozzolanic ash. Limekilns seem to have come into
regular use about the 18th century when Joseph Aspdin of England invented it.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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ALVORD LAKE BRIDGE (1889)

Alvord Lake Bridge is believed to be the oldest existing bridge with steel
reinforcing rods in the United States. The structure was built by Ernst L.
Ransome in 1889 and sports man-made stalactites in the tunnel portion. The
tunnel allows park visitors to pass underneath Kezar Drive. The bridge was
constructed as a single arch 64-foot wide with a 20-foot span. Ransome is
believed to have used his patented cold-twisted square steel bar for
reinforcement, placed longitudinally in the arch and curved in the same arc. The
face of the bridge was scored and hammered to resemble sandstone.

E.L. Ransome left San Francisco a few years later, frustrated and bitter at the
building community's indifference view to his concrete construction. Ironically, the
city's few reinforced concrete structures, including the Alvord Lake Bridge,
survived the 1906 earthquake and fire in remarkable shape, vindicating
Ransome's faith in the method. The Alvord Lake Bridge, which arches over a
pedestrian entrance to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, was designated as a
civil engineering landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the
1970's.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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GEORGE BARTHOLOMEW – PAVING THE WAY (1891)

Like many small towns, when raining, the streets were muddy, and when dry,
they were hard and dusty. Unlike other towns, Bellefontaine had George
Bartholomew who was willing to try a new material called artificial stone, or
concrete, to solve this problem. An obvious solution was to use his cement and
create a concrete pavement. Initially, the city council was skeptical about this
concrete pavement. They only authorized the paving of the square around the
courthouse, provided that Bartholomew was willing to donate the cement and
post a $5000 bond that guaranteed the pavement would last 5 years.

The slabs were formed in 1.5 m squares with tar paper between adjacent
slabs, and a two-layer pavement system was used. The base course was
approximately 100 mm and had maximum-sized aggregate of 40 mm with a
water-cement ratio of 0.60. The top, or wearing course, had maximum-sized
aggregate of 15 mm and a water-cement ratio of 0.45. The mixing of the
concrete was done without heavy equipment. The sand, stone, and cement were
dumped into a pile, and after mixing the concrete with hand-powered screw
mixers, the concrete was tamped into the forms. This mixing-and-placing method
entrapped approximately 8% air. The concrete was cured by the continuous
wetting of 50 mm sand for one week. When finished, the strength of the
concrete was more than 34.5MPa.

This pavement was considered revolutionary that George

Bartholomew was awarded first place for Engineering
Technology Advancement in Paving Materials. Nowadays,
the street is opened to light vehicular traffic. The overall
materials and construction costs was $9000, and the
maintenance and repair cost for the first 50 years was
$1400. Some of the original concrete pavement is still in
place and in use, although the concrete pavement does
show wear. But considering the fact that the pavement is
almost 110 years old, it’s certainly a worthwhile investment.
A statue of George Bartholomew was erected at the end of
the street to honors his vision of using concrete pavement.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

HOOVER DAM (1936)

Also known as Boulder Dam is a concrete

gravity-arch dam in the Black Canyon of the
Colorado River, on the border between the U.S.
states of Arizona and Nevada. The dam is named
after Herbert Hoover, who, first as Secretary of
Commerce and then later as President of the
United States. Construction began in 1931 and
was completed in 1936, over two years ahead of
schedule. Listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1981, Hoover Dam was designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1985. Lake Mead is the reservoir created behind the dam, named
after Elwood Mead, who oversaw the construction of the dam.

Concrete Pouring

The first concrete was placed into the dam on June 6, 1933. Since no structure
the magnitude of Hoover Dam had ever been constructed, many of the
procedures used in construction of the dam were untried. One of the problems
that faced the designers was cooling and contraction of the concrete in the dam.
Rather than being a single block of concrete, the dam was built as a series of
interlocking trapezoidal columns in order to allow the tremendous heat
produced by the curing concrete to dissipate. The engineers calculated that if the
dam were built in a single continuous pour, the concrete would have gotten so
hot that it would have taken 125 years for the concrete to cool to ambient
temperatures!

The resulting stresses would have caused the dam to crack and crumble away. It
was not enough to place small quantities of concrete in individual columns. In
order to speed up the concrete cooling so that the next layer could be poured,
each form also contained cooling coils of 25.4 mm diameter thin-walled steel
pipe. When the concrete was first poured, river water was circulated through
these pipes. Once the concrete had received a first initial cooling, chilled water
from a refrigeration plant on the lower cofferdam (large watertight chamber used
for construction under water) was circulated through the coils to finish the
cooling. When each block was cooled, the pipes of the cooling coils were cut off
and pressure grouted by pneumatic grout guns.

Statistics

Construction period : April 20, 1931 – March 1, 1936

Construction cost : $49 million ($676 million adjusted for inflation)
Deaths attributed to construction : 107
Concrete used : 3.33 million m³
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

ASSEMBLY HALL – LARGEST REINFORCED DOME STRUCTURE (1963)

The Assembly Hall is a large dome-shaped indoor arena located in Champaign,

Illinois, and is part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was born
out of a need for a single arena that could seat an entire university class. On May
3, 1963, the new Assembly Hall
was completed. It cost
$8,350,000 to build. Designed by
Max Abramovitz, the building is
one of the world’s largest edge-
supported structures. The
building was constructed on a
truly massive scale in every
respect. The 400-foot diameter of
the building reaches its peak at
128 feet above the center floor. During construction a special horizontal-wheeled
tractor was borrowed from missile silo work to wind 614 miles of 1/5” steel wire
around the dome’s edge, circling the dome 2,467 times.

This placed more than 130,000 pounds per square inch of tension on the
concrete, which caused it to squeeze inward and rise upwards, such that the
800,000 square feet of wooden scaffolding which had supported the concrete
when it was poured was uncovered and removed. The dome today is 2 inches
less than it was when it was originally poured due to this operation. Even the
concourse was built on an impressive scale, with 24 bridges leading onto the
quarter mile concourse, which is lit by 24 skylights.

FIRST TALLEST REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING (1992)

311 South Wacker Drive in Chicago is a 65-story

skyscraper completed in 1990. It was referred
informally by some Chicagoans as "The White Castle
Building", since the building's crown does resemble the
rook found on signs for White Castle, the fast food
chain. At 961 feet (293 m) tall, it is the sixth tallest
building in Chicago and the thirteenth tallest in the
United States. It is also the tallest concrete building in
the United States, and is said to be the tallest building
in the world known only by its street address. The lobby
is an impressive two-level (one below ground) 26 m
high glass ceiling "winter garden" with palm trees and a
fountain. It is the most visible Chicago skyscraper at
night, as its "crown" is brightly illuminated. The "crown" is actually a very large
representation of the engagement ring given by the architect to his wife.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

TEXTUAL TIMELINE

12,000,000 Reactions between limestone and oil shale during spontaneous

BC combustion occurred in Israel to form a natural deposit of cement
compounds. The deposits were characterized by Israeli
geologists in the 1960's and 70's.
3000 BC Used mud mixed with straw to bind dried bricks. They also used
Egyptians gypsum mortars and mortars of lime in the pyramids.
200 BC Used cementitious materials to hold bamboo together in their
Chinese boats and in the Great Wall.
800 BC
Used lime mortars which were much harder than later Roman
Greeks, Crete
mortars.
& Cyprus
300 BC
Babylonians & Used bitumen to bind stones and bricks.
As Syrians
Used pozzolana cement from Pozzuoli, Italy near Mt. Vesuvius to
build the Appian Way, Roman baths, the Coliseum and Pantheon
in Rome, and the Pont du Gard aqueduct in south France. They
300 BC - 476
used lime as a cementitious material. Pliny reported a mortar
AD
mixture of 1 part lime to 4 parts sand. Vitruvius reported a 2 parts
Romans
pozzolana to 1 part lime. Animal fat, milk, and blood were used as
admixtures (substances added to cement to increase the
properties.)
1200 - 1500 The quality of cementing materials deteriorated. The use of
The Middle burning lime and pozzolan (admixture) was lost, but reintroduced
Ages in the 1300's.
Joseph Moxon wrote about a hidden fire in heated lime that
1678
appears upon the addition of water.
Bry Higgins was issued a patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) for
1779
exterior plastering use.
Bry Higgins published "Experiments and Observations Made With
1780 the View of Improving the Art of Composing and Applying
Calcereous Cements and of Preparing Quicklime."
John Smeaton found that the calcination of limestone containing
clay gave a lime which hardened under water (hydraulic lime). He
used hydraulic lime to rebuild Eddystone Lighthouse in Cornwall,
1793
England which he had been commissioned to build in 1756, but
had to first invent a material that would not be affected by water.
He wrote a book about his work.
1796 James Parker from England patented a natural hydraulic cement
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
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by calcining nodules of impure limestone containing clay, called

Parker's Cement or Roman Cement.
1802 In France, a similar Roman Cement process was used.
Edgar Dobbs received a patent for hydraulic mortars, stucco, and
1810 plaster, although they were of poor quality due to lack of kiln
precautions.
Louis Vicat of France prepared artificial hydraulic lime by
1812 -1813
calcining synthetic mixtures of limestone and clay.
Maurice St. Leger was issued patents for hydraulic cement.
Natural Cement was produced in the USA. Natural cement is
1818
limestone that naturally has the appropriate amounts of clay to
make the same type of concrete as John Smeaton discovered.
John Tickell and Abraham Chambers were issued more hydraulic
1820 - 1821
cement patents.
James Frost of England prepared artificial hydraulic lime like
1822
Vicat's and called it British Cement.
Joseph Aspdin of England invented portland cement by burning
finely ground chalk with finely divided clay in a lime kiln until
1824 carbon dioxide was driven off. The sintered product was then
ground and he called it portland cement named after the high
quality building stones quarried at Portland, England.
I. K. Brunel is credited with the first engineering application of
1828 portland cement, which was used to fill a breach in the Thames
Tunnel.
The first production of lime and hydraulic cement took place in
1830
Canada.
The first systematic tests of tensile and compressive strength
1836
took place in Germany.
J. M. Mauder, Son & Co. was licensed to produce patented
1843
portland cement.
Isaac Johnson claims to have burned the raw materials of
1845
portland cement to clinkering temperatures.
Pettenkofer & Fuches performed the first accurate chemical
1849
analysis of portland cement.
The beginning of the era of portland cements of modern
1860
composition.
Blake Stonebreaker of England introduced the jaw breakers to
1862
crush clinkers.
Joseph Monier of France reinforced William Wand's (USA)
1867 flower pots with wire ushering in the idea of iron reinforcing bars
(re-bar).
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

David Saylor was issued the first American patent for portland
1871
cement. He showed the importance of true clinkering.
J. Grant of England show the importance of using the hardest and
1880 densest portions of the clinker. Key ingredients were being
chemically analyzed.
The first rotary kiln was introduced in England to replace the
1886
vertical shaft kilns.
Henri Le Chatelier of France established oxide ratios to prepare
the proper amount of lime to produce portland cement. He named
the components: Alite (tricalcium silicate), Belite (dicalcium
1887
silicate), and Celite (tetracalcium aluminoferrite). He proposed
that hardening is caused by the formation of crystalline products
of the reaction between cement and water.
1889 The first concrete reinforced bridge is built.
The addition of gypsum when grinding clinker to act as a
retardant to the setting of concrete was introduced in the USA.
1890
Vertical shaft kilns were replaced with rotary kilns and ball mills
were used for grinding cement.
George Bartholomew placed the first concrete street in the USA
1891
in Bellefontaine.
William Michaelis claimed that hydrated metasilicates form a
1893
gelatinous mass (gel) that dehydrates over time to harden.
1900 Basic cement tests were standardized.
1903 The first concrete high rise was built in Cincinnati, OH.
1908 Thomas Edison built cheap, cozy concrete houses in Union, NJ.
1909 Thomas Edison was issued a patent for rotary kilns.
Dr. Linus Pauling of the USA formulated a set of principles for the
1929
structures of complex silicates.
Air entraining agents were introduced to improve concrete's
1930
resistance to freeze/thaw damage.
The first major concrete dams, Hoover Dam and Grand Coulee
1936
Dam, were built.
1956 U.S. Congress annexed the Federal Interstate Highway Act.
First concrete domed sport structure, the Assembly Hall, was
1963
constructed at The University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign.
1970's Fiber reinforcement in concrete was introduced.
CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, the tallest slip-form building, was
1975 constructed. Water Tower Place in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest
building was constructed.
1980's Superplasticizers were introduced as admixtures.
 AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com

Silica fume was introduced as a pozzolanic additive. The

1985 "highest strength" concrete was used in building the Union Plaza
constructed in Seattle, Washington.
The tallest reinforced concrete building in the world was
1992
constructed at 311 S. Wacker Dr., Chicago, Illinois.