engineering

Roman cement

Roman cement is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Roman cement rather than just read about it. In short: Roman cement is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, being patented in 1796. The name is misleading, as it is nothing like any material used by the Romans, but was a "natural cement" made by burning septaria – nodules that are found in certain clay deposits, and that contain both clay minerals and calcium carbonate.

Key takeaways

Roman cement belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Roman cement to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Roman cement from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Roman cement is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, being patented in 1796. The name is misleading, as it is nothing like any material used by the Romans, but was a "natural cement" made by burning septaria – nodules that are found in certain clay deposits, and that contain both clay minerals and calcium carbonate. The burnt nodules are ground to a fine powder. This product, made into a mortar with sand, sets in 5–15 minutes. The success of Roman cement led other manufacturers to develop rival products by burning artificial mixtures of clay and chalk.

History There has been recent resurgence of interest in natural cements and Roman cements due mainly to the need for repair of façades done in this material in the 19th century. The major confusion involved for many people in this subject is the terminology used. Roman cement was originally the name given, by Parker, to the cement he patented which is a natural cement (i.e. it is a marl, or limestone containing integral clay, dug out of the ground, burnt and ground to a fine powder). In 1791, Parker was granted a patent "Method of Burning bricks, Tiles, Chalk". His second patent in 1796 "A certain Cement or Terras to be used in Aquatic and other Buildings and Stucco Work", covers Roman cement, the term he used in a 1798 pamphlet advertising his cement. He set up his manufacturing plant on Northfleetcreek, Kent. It was notably patented late on but James Parker is still the subject of all the credit. Later, in the 1800s various sources of the correct type of marl, known also as cement stone, were discovered across Europe and so there were a range of natural cements (with varying properties) in use across Europe. An Austrian standard from 1880, providing a contemporary definition of Roman cements, reads: "Roman cements are products obtained from argillaceous marlstones by burning below the sintering temperature. They do not slake in contact with water and must therefore be ground to a floury fineness." From around 1807 a number of people looked to make artificial versions of this cement (or more strictly hydraulic lime as it was not burnt at fusion temperatures). Amongst these were James Frost who had about twenty patents from 1811 to 1822 including one for "British Cement" and in 1824 Joseph Aspdin, a British bricklayer from Leeds, with his now famous patent for a method of making a cement he called "Portland cement". This was done by adding various materials together to make an artificial version of natural cement. The name "Portland cement" is also recorded in a directory published in 1823 being associated with William Lockwood, Dave Stewart, and possibly others.

There then followed a number of independently discovered or copied versions of this "Portland cement" (also referred to as proto-Portland cement). Proto-Portland cement had a different chemical makeup from other natural cements being produced at the same time: It was burnt at a higher temperature than other Natural cements and thus crosses the barrier between traditional vertical kiln fired natural cement and the later horizontal kiln fired artificial cements. This cement is not, however, the same as the modern ordinary Portland cement, which can be defined as artificial cement. James Frost is reported to have erected a manufactory for making of an artificial cement in 1826. In 1843, Aspdin's son William improved their cement, which was initially called "Patent Portland cement," although he had no patent. In 1848, William Aspdin further improved his cement and in 1853, he moved to Germany where he was involved in cement making. William Aspdin made what could be called meso-Portland cement (a mix of Portland cement and hydraulic lime). Development in the 1860s of rotating horizontal kiln technology brought dramatic changes in properties, arguably resulting in modern cement. Certainly it is difficult to define whether an old render was a natural cement (single source marl) or an artificial one, but there is no doubt that the cement was fired in a vertical or horizontal kiln. The names natural cement or Roman cement then defines a cement coming from a single source rock. Early or proto-Portland cement could be used for early cement that comes from a number of sourced and mixed materials. There is no widely used terminology for these 19th-century cements. There had been, in order to rediscover this technology, two projects carried out by the European Union ROCEM and subsequently ROCARE (an ongoing project). Both these only deal with natural cement – referred to as Roman cement without reference to the early artificial cements.

References Notes

Bibliography Thurston A P, Parker's "Roman" Cement, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 1939, pp. 193–206 (Newcomen Society) Major A J Francis, The Cement Industry 1796–1914 A History, 1977, Davis & Charles (Publishers) Limited, Devon, UK, North Pomfret, Vermont, US, North Vancouver, Canada Weber J, Mayr N, Bayer K, Hughes D, Kozłowski R, Stillhammerova M, Ullrich D, Vyskocilova R (2007), Roman cement mortars in Europe’s architectural heritage of the 19th century. Journal of the American Society for Testing Materials International, Vol, 4, No 8 Footnotes

External links Parker's Roman Cement 1796

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roman cement

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roman cement claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Roman cement before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Roman cement ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Roman cement

In research: Roman cement appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Roman cement in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Roman cement is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Building materials, Cement, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roman cement outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Roman cement in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roman cement means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Roman cement out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roman cement in simple terms?

Why does Roman cement matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Roman cement?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Roman cement.