Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 234, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1912 — This the Age of Concrete [ARTICLE]

This the Age of Concrete

Comparatively New Material Pushing i into Popularity for an Infinitude of Uses. At present a comparatively new material 1b pushing its way into popularity, and that for an infinitude of uses. Portland cement, as it was first Called, was first made known to the world about 1824 at Portland, England, where it was first manufactured, and came into favorable notice in connection with submarine construction where ordinary stone work had utterly failed. It was not until 1895, however, that it was manufactured in the United States, and it was only within the last decade that it has begun to supplant brick and stone as a building material. Made by the calcination of

marl, clay, slag and other materials, It absorbs water freely and is mixed with sand and brpken rock in varying proportions, the'" strongest being one part of cement to two of sand and four of “aggregate.” It sets almost as soon as mixed; continues to absorb water and to harden for many days, and gains strength for many years. Millions of bags have been used in constructing the Panama canal; no fortification is considered complete without it; grerft hulks and lighhters are built of steel skeletons coated with concrete, and the belief is very common that it must soon replace both wood and brick in house construction. Indeed, the high price of lumber, the greater cost of brick, owing to higher fuel and wages, with

the resultant use of inferior lumber and brick weakened by modern processes which hasten the burning but leave the product much more porous and softer than those made in the old way, must tend to increase the use of ' concrete for dwellings and small buildings of all kinds. Immense areas of sidewalk and pavement are laid yearly and swiftly increasing, and in the stupendous tunnels, sewers,. bridges, dams, sea-walls and other public structures, concrete has largely replaced brick and stone. — National Magazine.