History of Concrete, Masonry & Steel

(Thankyou: Sidney M. Levy)

History of Concrete

Concrete is an ancient material of construction, first used during the Roman Empire, which extended from about 20 B.C.to 200 A.D.The word concrete is derived from the Roman concretus, meaning to grow together. Although this early mixture was made with lime, cement, and a volcanic ash material  called pozzolana,concrete today is a sophisticated material to which exotic constitutents can be added and, with computer-controlled batching, can produce a product capable of achieving 50,000 psi compressive strength.

History of Masonry

The first recorded brick masonry units were made by the Egyptians in 10,000 B.C.and the Romans used brick in many of their structures 2000 years go. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is the first recorded use of mortar. Brick manufacture and use occurred in the mid-1600s and was patterned on English methods and practices. It was not until 1930, however, that cavity wall construction (as we know it today) was introduced into the United States from Europe as a means of controlling moisture. This method provides a physical separation between the inner and outer wythes to serve as a drainage cavity for water, which would be expelled through weep holes in the outer wythe.

Masonry today is primarily devoted to the construction of brick, block, structural clay products, and natural and cast stone. Walls can be basically categorized as load-bearing or non-load-bearing walls, cavity walls, veneer walls, and solid walls. No matter the type of material used or the method by which the masonry wall is constructed, two components remain crucial:mortar and wall reinforcement.

History of Steel

Iron was produced by primitive man by placing iron ore and charcoal in a clay pot and building a fire in the pot, using a crude bellows to provide the forced draft that deposited iron at the bottom. It was not until the mid-1800s that Henry Bessemer, an English metallurgist, developed a process whereby forced air was introduced into the iron-refining procedure raising the temperature of the crucible so that impurities in the molten pig iron were burned away. In the process, a more malleable metal, steel, was created.