Joseph  ASPDIN

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Joseph Aspdin, of Leeds, in the County of York, Bricklayer, send greeting. WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of October, in the fifth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Aspdin, His special licence, that I, the said Joseph Aspdin, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time at all time during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my invention of 'AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MODE OF PRODUCING AN ARTIFICIAL STONE;' in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, said Joseph Aspdin, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe

One of the greatest commodities in the United States today is a greyish powder commonly sold in 50-pound bags for about 10 cents a pound.

Modern Portland cement has a rather short but fabulous history. Back in 1824 an English mason named Joseph Aspdin mixed a compound composed of lime, silica, alumina and iron oxide. The result was a grayish substance which reminded him of the stone quarried from the isle of Portland off the British coast.

Joseph Aspdin's Portland cement proved to be the best answer to an age-old problem. Down through the centuries men had attempted to bind stone into a solid mass.

Some of their efforts were remarkably successful. The Assyrians and Babylonians achieved some good restults with clay. The Egyptians built the Pyramids by using lime and gypsum mortar as a binding agent.

The Russians, who mixed slaked lime with a volcanic as from Mount Vesuvius, produced a cement capable of hardening under water. As proof of the quality of their cement, many