When did cement first make its place known?

[robgil]

As far as I am aware it was early 1800's, am I right? ''In 1824, English inventor, Joseph Aspdin invented Portland Cement'', So it would be safe to say that some Victorian buildings did in fact use cement instead of lime?
So perhaps people who own Victorian houses might think twice before taking away cement and replacing it with lime?
Just a thought.

 

[PeterI]

Romans first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_concrete

However I did wonder when modern cement became widely available...

 

[plasticpigeon]

Maybe, but I have construction books from the 30s that still concentrate on building with lime. Cement is also included but it seemed that the general mortar used was still lime, with cement mentioned for higher class buildings and engineering bricks. It seems logical and I have seen evidence that cement can be damaging if the bricks or stone used in construction are weak or porous or if the building is likely to suffer seasonal movements. For example, my house from around 1900 includes a small amount of cement which was used to bed in the single course of bricks above the single slate dpc. I even don't think this was a great idea as the cement being very brittle tends to crack where the house has suffered settlement. I had to rebuild a small area under a window that had suffered a lot of movement and was bowing out and the cement had shattered into lots of small hard pieces whereas the lime had only cracked into a few large pieces. I rebuilt that area using lime mortar on top of the slate and the dpc seems to function well. I bet railway bridges and the like were built with cement, but using engineering bricks, and I imagine the foundations are considerable, and the whole structure so massive that it is not going to experience movement in the same way as house.

 

[biffvernon]

Very little cement was used in the 19th century for ordinary domestic housing, but note that there was quite a lot of weakly hydraulic lime about. Much of Victorian London was built with the equivalent of NHL about 1.

 

[Feltwell]

The Romans did indeed use cement, but it wasn't the same as what we use today - OPC, or Ordinary Portland Cement. If my very, very rusty Civil Engineering memory serves me right then the Romans basically found that adding clay to a lime mortar made it set faster & harder and then experimented with adding various pozzolans. They weren't the first though, there is evidence that the Ancient Eygptians had a go first.

"Cement" is a catch-all term, there are many different types. In modern times (18th century) the early cements came from limestones that naturally contained the right amount of clay - so-called "natural cements" - and there were many regional variations, some with "extras" added in. Modern OPC is a different, factory-mixed beast.

So when cement came in does depend on what you call cement - and in the early days it was also about adding different things to and experimenting with existing lime mortars, as you'd expect. By the 1920's the modern, rotating horizontal kiln was well established and cement was made as we know it today. Even then lime hadn't completely gone out of favour - I owned a 1920's house built with lime mortar.

All the above is subject to a rusty memory disclaimer!!

For the UK, one of the earliest modern concrete buildings is down in the West Country:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/so/2004/04/castle_house.shtml

 

[DJH]

Also in the West Country is what I've been told is the first railway viaduct to be built from concrete. It's on the now closed Axminster to Lyme Regis railway line and crosses a valley near Uplyme.

Later. I have a book somewhere about this railway line. I used to catch it regularly when I was courting Mrs DJH, from the only stop on the line, Combpyne Halt, to go to either Lyme Regis or Axminster. In the sidings were some holiday coaches parked up and there was a station complete with station master and ticket clerk.The holiday coaches were phased out when the only supply of water(from a well) dried up and rubbish was inadvertently tipped down it. Water was then brought in milk churns every morning from Axminster and the empties were taken back for refilling. Happy days.

I think from memory the viaduct was cast by Cubbits or even Wimpy and has something like eight arches but one of them sunk in soft ground and had another arch built inside it with brick, to hold it up. It may even be a listed structure as it wasn't taken down when the line closed.

 

[vicky whitworth]

It's still there, DJH and I was wondering why there was an arch within an arch and now I know. You pass under it on one of our favourite walks around Lyme and Uplyme. I can imagine the station all spick and span.

Went to the revamped Exeter museum yesterday and cried. It's trashed. Gerald the Giraffe has been moved from his purpose built all where you could view him at eye level and shoved in a dark corner with an elephant. All you see now are Gerald's testicles. It's won museum of the year. How did that happen? Do people have no soul? Such a shame.

 

[DJH]

That's a shame Vicky. I remember once going into Lyme from Combpyne Halt with the present Mrs DJH and as the train pulled in we got up from the bench we were sitting on and a toggle from her coat had fallen down between a gap in the wooden planks of the seat and of course the harder she pulled the less likely the toggle was going to come through. Anyway, the train pulled away without us just as she got free, the driver must have seen us running to catch up so he reversed the train back to the platform and we got on.

Doug, from nearby Combpyne Harbour years ago!!