Roman Cement

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The cement used by the Romans (100 BCE to about 400 CE) was a mixture of lime and pozzuolana (siliceous volcanic ash) or crushed burnt clays or brick dust. This gave an hydraulic lime.

In 1796 James Parker took out a patent in the UK for a natural cement he called "Roman cement". Natural nodules of limestone (40% to 65%) and clay from the Isle of Sheppey were burnt in a kiln, similar to the lime kilns of the time, with wood fuel. The burnt material from the kiln was then crushed and ground to a powder. The cement, which was actually an hydraulic lime, had hydraulic properties similar to the cement used by the Romans.

From around 1810 a number of artificial versions of this cement were made by others such as James Frost (British cement) and Joseph Aspdin (who called his cement Portland cement in a patent he took for a method of making it) in England, and Louis Vicat in France. "Roman cement" and other hydraulic limes continued to be made throughout the 19th century, but in the second half of that century were overtaken rapidly by Portland cement.