A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th century by Joseph Aspdin, and is usually made from limestone. It is a fine powder, produced by heating limestone and clay minerals in a kiln to form clinker, grinding the clinker, and adding 2 to 3 percent of gypsum. Several types of portland cement are available. The most common, called ordinary portland cement (OPC), is grey, but white portland cement is also available. Its name is derived from its resemblance to Portland stone which is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. It was named by Joseph Aspdin who obtained a patent for it in 1824. His son William Aspdin is regarded as the inventor of "modern" portland cement due to his developments in the 1840s.
A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is
Rugby is a market town in eastern Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon. At the 2021 census, its population was 78,117, making it the second-largest town in Warwickshire. It is the main settlement within the larger Borough of Rugby, which had a population of 114,400 in 2021.
Lime is an inorganic material composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word lime originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of sticking or adhering.
New Bilton is a suburb of Rugby, Warwickshire, in England, situated to the west of the town centre. New Bilton is also a ward of the Borough of Rugby whose population at the 2021 census was 8,166. The area straddles the A428 main road, known locally as Lawford Road.
Bishop's Itchington is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. It is about 3 miles (5 km) south-southwest of Southam and about 6.5 miles (10 km) southeast of Royal Leamington Spa. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,082.
Stockton is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England, with a population of 1,505 at the 2021 Census. It is just east of the A426 road, two miles north-east of Southam and eight miles south-west of Rugby. The name was first recorded in 1272 and means "a fenced enclosure". In the 19th century, it developed as an industrial village.
Aberthaw Cement Works are cement works in the Vale of Glamorgan near the village of East Aberthaw in Wales.
James Parker was English businessman, clergyman, and inventor who invented one of the pioneering new cements of the late eighteenth century.
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, together having around a 70% market share of the British cement market. In 1911, the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd was formed by the addition of a further 35 companies, creating a company with an initial 80% of the British cement market.
Loma Negra Companía Industrial Argentina S.A. is an Argentine manufacturer and the country's leading maker of cement, concrete, and lime. The company, established by businessman Alfredo Fortabat, also founded its own sports club, C.S.yD. Loma Negra three years later. After the passing of Alfredo Fortabat, his wife Amalia Lacroze took over the business.
Coplay Cement Company Kilns, also known as the Saylor Park Industrial Museum, is an open-air historic site located at Coplay, Pennsylvania in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The nine kilns were built between 1892 and 1893 and used for the production of Portland cement.
Ketton Cement Works is a large cement plant and quarry based in the village of Ketton in the county of Rutland in the United Kingdom. Now owned by HeidelbergCement, the plant produces around one tenth of the UK's Portland Cement needs. Ketton works employs around 220 people and is at the forefront of sustainable cement production, namely through the increasing use of non-fossil fuels for the kilns.
Newbold Quarry Park is a nature reserve in Newbold-on-Avon, around 1½ miles north-west of Rugby town centre, Warwickshire, England. It consists of a former water-filled quarry surrounded by woodlands and covers an area of 10.50 hectares. It is managed by the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust on behalf of Rugby Borough Council.
The cement industry in the United States produced 82.8 million tonnes of cement in 2015, worth US$9.8 billion, and was used to manufacture concrete worth about US$50 billion. The US was the world's third-largest producer of cement, after China and India. The US cement industry includes 99 cement mills in 34 states, plus two plants in Puerto Rico. The industry directly employed 10,000 workers in 2015. Ten percent of the cement used in the United States in 2015 was imported.
Raffan's Mill and Brick Bottle Kilns is a heritage-listed lime kiln at Carlton Road, Portland, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1884 to 1895 by George Raffan and Alexander Currie. It is also known as Raffan's Mill and Brick Bottle Kilns Precinct, Portland Cement Works Site, Williwa Street Portland. The property is owned by Boral. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 August 2012.
Portland Cement Works Precinct is a heritage-listed former cement works and limestone quarries and now disused industrial site at Williwa Street, Portland, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed and built in various stages from 1890 to 2003. It is also known as Portland Cement Group and Commonwealth Portland Cement Company Ltd. The property is owned by Boral Limited. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 August 2012.
Lafarge Africa Plc is a building solutions company headquartered in Lagos and quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It is majorly controlled by the Holcim Group. Previously trading under the name of Lafarge Wapco Plc, the merger of Lafarge and Holcim and resulting consolidation of Lafarge's assets in Nigeria and South Africa resulted in the name change to Lafarge Africa.
Betchworth Quarry and Lime Kilns is a 27-hectare (67-acre) nature reserve north of Betchworth in Surrey. Betchworth Quarry only is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation.
