History of Cement

For centuries, dating back to the early years of the Roman Empire, natural cement has been a vital ingredient in structural development of all kinds. However, its manufactured counterpart, portland cement, emerged in the early nineteenth century as one of the major technical 'discoveries' of the Industrial Age. Portland cement traces its history back to 1824, when an English bricklayer patented the product. He called it 'Portland' cement because he thought it resembled natural building stone found on the Isle of Portland, in the south of England.

Portland cement is not a brand, but a type of cement used almost universally today in North America and throughout much of the industrialized world. Portland cement, stone, sand and water are the basic ingredients of the concrete products with which we build highways, bridges, commercial buildings, dams, residential homes and a myriad of other structures fundamental to America's economic vitality and quality of life.