What is cement?

Cement was used 4,600 years ago by the Ancient Egyptians to create the mortar which built the Pyramids. While various mixtures of materials were used over the course of history based on natural materials available, the most common type of modern cement is Portland cement which is manufactured according to specific building material standards.

The process to produce portland cement was invented by Joseph Aspdin in the early 1800's in England who named it after the natural limestone on the Isle of Portland in the English Channel. Portland cement is the primary ingredient for concrete, mortar, stucco and grout. It's created by combining calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and gypsum which are materials found naturally in stone like limestone, shale, and iron ore.

So what's is concrete?

Concrete is cement with aggregate usually crushed stone & sand and water. The name concrete comes from the Latin "concretus", which means to grow together. Concrete was used as far back as 200 AD by the Romans, and today is the most widely used construction material in the world. Concrete is inexpensive, very strong and easy to work with because it can be formed as a liquid. Without concrete we would not have ancient wonders like the Pantheon and the Colosseum or modern ones like the Hoover dam and Panama Canal.