Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1911 — OLD INVENTOR BUSY [ARTICLE]

OLD INVENTOR BUSY

Johnson of Portland Cement Fame Translates Greek. Noted Englishman Finds Work Is Necessary and Tells Something of His Life as Patentee, Preacher and Magistrate. London.—ln a neat little ' cottage called Maywood, at Graveßend, lives Isaac C. Johnson, J. P., the inventor of Portland cement. On January 28 he attained the age of 100 years. The closing days of his life he is spending in translating the new testament and parts of the old from Greek Into literal English. Mr. Johnson has been not only a wonderful chemist, mathematician and business man, but a closo and loving student of the scriptures. “Though only a layman," says he, “I have preached the gospel in very many of the countries of England and also on the continent But what I have done I have done by the will of God and I do not myself Beek exaltation.” The old man occupies himself in the translation of Greek, because,'as he says, he now has nothing else to do and does not believe that anybody should be idle. “An object In life," he declares, “is necessary to mental, moral and physical health. Let it be a language, or some branch of research, or even a thing like amateur photography." Mr. Johnson was born at Vauxhall of working class parents and received only very humble schooling. For some time he was employed in a bookseller’s shop in Craven street. Strand. Later ho entered the service of a firm of cement manufacturers at Nine Elms, where he worked in every branch of the buslnoss and eventually obtained an appointment in the office of the manager. Here, making his first acquaintance with mathematical instruments, he attended a night school for architectural drawing and became so proficient in the “science of lines” that he was able to supplement his income by giving instruction to young joiners.

In the course of yearß he became a manufacturer of cement on hla own account and finally Invented the world famous Portland cement He says he got on simply by hard and persistent work, doing everything that lay before him in the most thorough manner of which he was capable. His longevity he attributes to the fact that he has been a total abstainer for eightytwo years. He explains that at one time he was very near to becoming • drunkard, “cast aa I was Into London as an apprentice in the midst of men of low habits.” Referring to his career as a magistrate, Mr. Johnson states that he always took the merciful side as far as he could. “Punishment is necessary for the welfare of society, but It must be, as near as possible, proportionate to the offense committed. With regard to capital punishment, I think that this should be abolished, because it glvee a man ne space for true repentance; and I do not believe In flogging. Nine-tenths of the cases brought before the bench are traceable to drink. Destroy the traffic add poor rates would be comparatively small. Jails comparatively empty, cost of maintenance saved and the present excessive com mo datlon for lunatics greatly reduped.” Asked bow he came to invent Port-

land cement. Mr. Johnson said: “That is much too long a story to tell you now. I was manager on the estate of Messrs. White & Sons at Swanscombe at the time and it was not until after a long series of experiments—with many failures—that at length I was able to turn out a cement the strength and hydrolicity of which secured Messrs. White a large demand for it from the French government and the English market, as well as from Germany and other countries. My company supplied the cement for the Tower bridge foundations and for that great work, the Assouan dam.”