HISTORY OF CEMENT

12,000,000 BC Reactions between limestone and oil of bituminous schist during spontaneous combustion
happened in the area presently occupied by Israel, forming a natural deposit of cementing components.

3,000 BC The Egyptians used gypsum mortars and lime mortars to build the pyramids. 800 BC Greeks and Cretans used lime mortars, which later became the base of the famous Roman Mortar. 300 AD - 476 AD The Romans used lime and cementing pozzolan from Pozzuoli, Italy, to build the Apian Way, the
Roman baths, the Coliseum, and the Pantheon in Rome. They used animal milk and blood as additives when preparing the mixture of two parts of pozzolan and one part of lime. These structures still exist nowadays.

1200 - 1500 The Middle Ages. The art of making mortar is lost. Mixing calcined lime and pozzolan gets disused, but
it re-appears about the 1300's.

1779 Bry Higgins promoted a patent for hydraulic cement (stucco) to be used in exterior plasters. 1793 John Smeaton found that calcining limestone-containing clay formed a lime that gets hardened under the water
(hydraulic lime).

1796 Joseph Parker patented in England natural hydraulic cement produced by the calcination of coarse limestone
nodules containing clay, which was called Parker Cement or Roman Cement.

1812 - 1813 The Frenchman Louis J. Vicat prepared an artificial hydraulic lime by the calcination of a mixture of
limestone and clay.

1818 Maurice St. Leger promoted a patent for hydraulic cement. The Natural Cement was produced in the USA.
Natural cement is produced with a limestone that by nature has the appropriate amounts of clay to make the same kind of cement that produced by John Smeaton.

1822 James Frost prepared a hydraulic lime similar to that prepared by Vicat and called it British Cement. 1824 Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer and mason in Leeds, England, invented the Portland cement by the calcination of
a mixture of chalk and clay finely divided. The senterized product was milled and denominated Portland cement, for its similarity in high quality for construction to that found in the stones quarried on the isle of Portland, England.

1845 Isaac Johnson took the raw meal to clinkerization temperature for Portland cement. 1949 Pettenkofer and Fuches developed the first chemical analysis of Portland cement. 1886 The first rotating kiln was used to produce clinker for Portland cement, replacing the vertical kilns. 1887 Henri Le Chatelier established the relation of oxides for adding the adequate amounts of limestone and clay to
produce the Portland cement.

1890 Addition of gypsum was established during clinker milling to act as a retarder of cement setting time. The ball
mills began to be used in the cement grinding.

1900 The basic cement tests are standardized. 1909 Thomas Edison promoted a patent for rotating kilns.

1930 Air-adding agents are introduced to improve concrete resistance to freezing damages.