| Concrete is the world's most widely used man-made | | | | was used in the construction of waterproof tanks |
| building material. Over one point five billion tons of | | | | much like today's Hawaii precast concrete uses similar |
| cement is produced annually worldwide with around | | | | concrete in totally submerged precast forms. The |
| forty percent of this being used in China. The concrete | | | | Romans then refined the mortars and are attributed to |
| made from this cement exceeds ten billion tons | | | | the invention of concrete by adding broken brick |
| annually. If you can imagine how much concrete has | | | | aggregate in a mixture of lime putty with volcanic ash |
| been used over the centuries, it would be mind | | | | or brick dust. You can still see some of their work in |
| boggling. The history of cement and concrete goes | | | | the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Great Roman Baths |
| back over five thousand years. If you trace the known | | | | and many more outstanding examples of how durable |
| history of geological cement, it goes back around | | | | this new form of building material really is. |
| twelve million years. | | | | Unfortunately, after the fall of the Roman Empire, it |
| Let's stick to when man was involved though and go | | | | seems concrete and cement production came to a |
| back to the Egypt. For sure the Egyptians would have | | | | halt. It really didn't pick back up until the seventeenth |
| liked to have had the option we do these days of | | | | century. Apparently, the first concrete structure to be |
| creating the pyramid using some Las Vegas precast | | | | built since the Romans was the Eddystone Lighthouse |
| concrete forms. The Ancient Egyptians used mud and | | | | in England. The first concrete bridge was built in 1818 in |
| straw along with gypsum to bind their dried bricks. To | | | | Souillac France. Then in England in 1824, a man by the |
| bond the great stone they used lime mortars. Near | | | | name of Joseph Aspdin invented Portland cement. |
| that same time the Chinese were using cementation | | | | This cement was named Portland because it bore a |
| materials between the bamboo in their boats and | | | | resemblance to the stones quarried at the Isle of |
| when building the Great Wall. | | | | Portland. It is still in use today in products like a precast |
| The Greeks were the first to discover how hydraulic | | | | concrete utility vault. |
| mortars worked both in the air and in the water. This | | | | |