Page 10 - ICJ Jan 2023

TECHNICAL PAPER COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Extract from the Presidential Address

HENRY JAMES DEANE, B.E., M. INST. C.E

Whether reinforced or otherwise, concrete must be looked upon as a structural
material, though in the process of its production the constituents naturally are
the determining factor in its intimate value in resisting stresses to which it has to
be subjected. Of these by far the most important is the constituent providing the
cementitious properties.
Keyword: Read before the Institution of Structural Engineers, 1927.

E

ARLY HISTORY OF CONCRETE
Portland cement, which may be said to have commenced its supersession of ordinary and
hydraulic limes about the middle of last century, came into very general use mainly in connection
with the heavier classes of concrete structures such as walls, foundations, dams, etc., during the
ensuing twenty-five years or so, and a very large amount of testing and experimental work was
done with the object of improving the manufacture of cement and its use in concrete structures.
Several papers and discussions thereon of remarkable value are printed in the proceedings of
the Institution of Civil Engineers up to the date which I have taken as the starting point for my
remarks in connection with this portion of my address. No one reading these papers can fail to be
impressed with the progress which had been achieved in general knowledge of Portland cement
and the appreciation of what its future capabilities might be. Nor can the great increase in demand
be overlooked. Works of great magnitude were being carried out all over the world involving the
use of many hundreds of thousands of tons, and despite competition from abroad, the cement
output in this country went up at a remarkable rate. Most engineers and manufacturers realised
even in those days the importance of the correctness of the proportions of chemical constituents
of the raw materials, the adequacy of calcination and the value of fine grinding of the clinker.

A great deal of useful work was done in connection with the correct proportioning of aggregates,
the quantity of water used in mixing and methods of placing. The effects of sea water on Portland
cement concrete occupied much attention in consequence of the failure of certain works exposed

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