Materials
Portland Cement
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The hydraulic binder produced by calcining a limestone-and-clay mixture at high temperature and grinding the resulting clinker to a fine powder; mixed with water it hardens through a chemical reaction, and mixed with aggregate it becomes concrete, the dominant binder in modern construction worldwide. Its history is a genuine multi-stage evolution rather than a single invention: an earlier, chemically different natural cement predates it, the man usually credited with inventing it patented a materially weaker product than what the name means today, and the process broadly recognized as modern Portland cement was developed by his own son a generation later, without a new patent or a new name.
Facts
Primary UseThe binding agent in concrete and mortar in nearly all modern construction. 1 Origin YearJoseph Aspdin was granted British Patent No. 5022 on 21 October 1824, coining the term "Portland cement," but his process produced a comparatively fast-setting cement usable mainly in mortars and stuccos, chemically distinct from and weaker than what the name means today. From 1843 at Rotherhithe, his son William Aspdin reformulated the mixture with higher limestone content and higher kiln temperatures, producing a slow-setting, high-strength cement suitable for concrete, what is now regarded as "true" modern Portland cement; he neither patented this reformulation nor gave it a new name. A further, distinct precursor exists: James Parker patented "Roman cement" in 1796 (British Patent No. 2120), an earlier, chemically different natural cement, not Portland cement. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Portland cement is the standard binder used to make modern concrete.
In Field
Sources
1. Joseph Aspdin Patent No. 5022, 1824 (cementkilns.co.uk)
cementkilns.co.ukpatent specification textQuote, patent specification text
My method of making a cement or artificial stone for stuccoing buildings, waterworks, cisterns, or any other purpose to which it may be applicable (and which I call Portland cement) is as follows...
1. Joseph Aspdin Patent No. 5022, 1824 (cementkilns.co.uk)
1. Joseph Aspdin Patent No. 5022, 1824 (cementkilns.co.uk)
2. William Aspdin (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationBiography sectionQuote, Biography section
By increasing the limestone content in the mixture, and burning it much hotter, a slow-setting, high-strength product suitable for use in concrete could be obtained... Although this product, referred to today as 'modern' Portland cement, was entirely different mineralogically from that of his father, Aspdin did not take out a patent, or give it a new name.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.