History of Cementing Materials

History of Cementing Materials

The History of Cementing Materials dates back to the history of construction. The first piece of Construction Initiated around 2300 BC, Harappa and Mohen jo daro , the largest Cities of the Indus valley Civilization and one of the world's earliest Urban civilization Contemporaneous with the civilizations of  Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Cementing material used by different Civilzations

Indus valley Civilization - Not much light has been thrown on cementing material used in the construction of the cities of Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro. However in the later years there are evidences of the use of the Indian practice of thorough mixing and continued ramming of lime mortar with or without the addition of SURKHI which yielded strong and impervious mortar, Therefore the Magnificent Temples in India.

 Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro

       (Lime is a calcium containing inorganic material in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominant.)

(Surkhi is used as a substitute for sand for concrete and mortar, and has almost the same function as of sand but it also imparts some strength and hydraulicity. Surkhi is made by grinding to powder burnt bricks, brick-bats or burnt clay under-burnt or over-burnt bricks should not be used, nor bricks containing high proportion of sand. When clay is especially burnt for making into surkhi, an addition of 10 to 20 per cent of quick lime will improve its quality.)

SURKHI

Ancient Egypt - Burnt gypsum(calcined gypsum) was used as a Cementing Material ( CaSO₄·2H₂O) ,An Analysis of mortar From the Great pyramid showed that it contained 81.5 percent Calcium sulphate and only 9.5 percent carbonate

The Great Pyramid of GIZA

Greeks and Romans - They produced the finest piece of Architecture,with remarkable hardness of mortar, some of which still exist, presenting the Mark of Perfection and Excellence. They used limestone as a cementing material through Mixing and Continued Ramming.

The Temple of ZEUS in Greece

    

Pozzolona : Later the Romans and the Greeks Became Aware of the fact that certain volcanic ash and tuff , when mixed with lime and sand yielded mortar possessing superior strength and better durability in fresh or salt water, this volcanic tuff was collect from mount vesuvius in the village of pozzuli , thus the name Pozzolona.

The COLOSSEUM in Rome

It is learnt that the romans added blood, milk and lard to their  mortar and concrete to achieve better workability. Haemoglobin from blood is a powerful air-entraining agent and plasticizer therefore it also adds durability to the mortar. The Cementing material made by romans using lime and natural or artificial pozzolona retained its position as the chief building material for all work.

This product remained popular and was in practice and in about 1800 AD the product thus obtained was called Roman Cement, was in use tillabout 1850 after which this was outdated  by portland cement.

History of Modern Cement (Portland cement)

The investigations of L.J.vicat led him to prepare an artificial hydraulic lime by calcinating an intimate mixture of limestone and clay, which lead to creation of portland cement.

Further many investigations were done, and in 1824 joseph aspdin took the patent of portland cement. The name of portland was given owing to the resemblance of this hardened cement to the natural stone occuring at portland in England. In his process aspdin mixed and ground hard limestone and finely divided clay in the form of a slurry and calcinated it in a furnace similar to a lime kiln till Carbon dioxide was expelled.

In 1845 Isaac charles johnson burnt a mixture of clay and chalk till the clinkering stage to make better cement and this established factories in 1851.

In the early period, Cement was used for making mortar only.Later the use of cement was extended for making concrete.