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Concrete
Contractor Home > History of Concrete
History of Concrete
Cement has been a naturally occurring substance for more
than 12 million years and was used in rudimentary forms from
about 3000 BC by the Egyptians, Chinese and Greeks. In man-made
form, however, concrete was first developed by the Romans.
Some time in the third century BC, they discovered that mixing
volcanic ash with lime mortar, sand and gravel made a rock-hard
substance similar to today's concrete. With the addition of
animal fat, milk and blood, this substance was called pozzolan
cement and was used to construct the Appian Way, the Coliseum
and the Pantheon, as well as the Pont du Gard in Southern
France.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the quality of cementing
materials diminished rapidly because most people simply were
more interested in building with stone. The technique for
making pozzolan cement was lost and didn't reappear again
until midway through the Middle Ages. In 1414, the manuscripts
of the Roman Pollio Vitruvius - which contained information
about pozzolan cement - were discovered, thus reviving the
interest in concrete. Fra Giocondo used pozzolan cement to
build the pier of the Pont de Notre Dame in Paris in 1499,
the first modern use of concrete.
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John Smeaton and the Eddystone Lighthouse
in Cornwall, England. Smeaton's research into the use
of better raw materials in concrete led to expanded
use of concrete thorughout Europe in the 1800s.
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Concrete technology took a huge leap in the 1700s. John Smeaton
was an English engineer looking for a building material that
would not be adversely affected by water. He discovered in
1774 that quicklime made a harder cement. In 1793 he took
that discovery another step forward when he realized that
the calcinations of limestone that contained clay produced
hydraulic lime, a lime that hardens under water. It was this
material that was used in the historic rebuilding of the Eddystone
Lighthouse in Cornwall, England.
Smeaton's work led to a more widespread use of concrete throughout
England and further advances in technology. James Parker patented
a natural hydraulic cement in 1796 that was made by calcinating
pieces of pure limestone that contained clay. William Jessop
used this technology to create the West India Dock in Great
Britain, one of the first structures to use concrete on such
a large scale.
From there, the popularity of concrete as a building material
spread to France, where Louis Vicat developed an artificial
hydraulic lime composed of synthetic limestone and clay in
1812. This technology was used in 1816 to build the world's
first unreinforced concrete bridge in Souillac, France.
The 19th century saw rapid advances in concrete technology
all over the world. One of the most important advancements
took place in 1824 when an English bricklayer named Joseph
Aspdin made an important discovery. He learned that burning
finely ground chalk with divided clay in a lime kiln produced
a cement that is much stronger than the previously used crushed
limestone cement. This was called Portland cement and is still
used in today's concrete production. Four years later, Portland
cement was used in its first engineering application for filling
a breach in the Thames Tunnel.
Another important technological advance came about in 1849
when the French gardener Joseph Monier began experimenting
with ways to make a more durable flowerpot. He reinforced
American William Wand's garden pots and tubs with iron mesh
and the idea of iron reinforced concrete, or ferroconcrete,
was born. Monier exhibited his creation at the Paris Exposition
in 1867 and received a patent for it. Because reinforced concrete
combines the tensile strength of steel with the compressional
strength of concrete, it is able to withstand heavy loads
and is commonly used in the building of many commercial structures
even today.
After its inception, Portland cement became the focal point
of concrete technology and many scientists and engineers turned
their focus to it. One of the first patents for its production
was issued to J. M. Mauder, Son & Co. in 1843. In 1845,
Isaac Johnson claimed to have burned its raw materials to
clinkering temperatures. However, it was American David O.
Saylor who first demonstrated the importance of true clinkering
in 1871 and he received the first American patent for Portland
cement. J. Grant of England took Saylor's ideas a step forward
by chemically analyzing the key ingredients of Portland cement
and showing the importance of using the hardest, densest portions
of the clinker.
In those days, the kilns used to make concrete were vertical
and stationary, and were allowed to cool down after each use-a
big waste of energy. A more efficient kiln was needed, and
in 1885 an English engineer developed a kiln that was slightly
tilted, horizontal and could be rotated. This was called the
rotary kiln and allowed for better temperature control and
more efficient mixing of materials. This resulted in a more
consistent output of high quality concrete. By 1890, most
kilns used in concrete production were rotary.
American inventor Thomas Edison advanced rotary kiln technology
when he introduced the first long kiln in 1902 in his Edison
Portland Cement Works in New Village, New Jersey. His kiln
was 150 feet long, 70 feet longer than the kilns used at that
time, and paved the way for today's kilns that are sometimes
more than 500 feet long. Edison received a patent for his
kiln in 1909.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw many firsts in
concrete history, including:
- the first reinforced concrete bridge in 1889;
- the first American concrete street, placed by George Bartholomew
in Bellefontaine, OH in 1891;
- the Ingalls
Building, the first concrete high rise, in Cincinnati,
OH in 1903;
- the first mile of rural pavement for automobiles in the
U.S. (Wayne County, Michigan) in 1909.
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Concrete is now the most frequently
used material in the construction industry, finding its
way into roads, bridges and the majority of commercial
building structures - like this distribution center in
Arlington, Texas, which is made up of tilt-up concrete
wall panels.
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Other important concrete structures were built later in the
20th century and include the first major dams, the Grand
Coulee Dam, built in 1933 and Hoover
Dam, built in 1936; the first concrete domed sport structure,
the Assembly
Hall built at The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign
in 1967; and the tallest reinforced concrete building in the
world, built in Chicago, Illinois, in 1992.
Today concrete is the most frequently used material in the
building industry and can be found everywhere in the world
- in roads, houses, bridges, and many other structures. There
are even concrete canoe and Frisbee competitions. The legacy
of concrete is as enduring as the material itself. All around
you is evidence of our technology and an important part of
human history: concrete.
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