USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Three > Part 32
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sary to grind the raw rocks together to produce a material of uniform analysis and then to make this material into blocks of homogeneous character before placing them in the kilns for cal- cination. Mr. Saylor was materially aided by John W. Eckert, a graduate of the Lehigh University, who was the first chemist of the Coplay Cement Company. This company Mr. Saylor afterwards left to join the American Cement Company, which had been established by Robert W. Lesley, who had also been connected with Mr. Saylor.
While this work in the Lehigh region was being carried on to success, experiments and young industries were in progress else- where in this State. Early in 1875 works were started by Wil- liam P. Shinn and John K. Shinn at Wampum, Lawrence county, Pa., using limestone and clay. These works are now owned by the Crescent Cement Company and are on the high tide of suc- cess. Experiments in other sections of the country were not so successful, for varied reasons, and in 1881, out of the six original works established, three were failures and the outlook for the in- vestor was not encouraging. The chief difficulty encountered was the cost of getting the raw material into powder, then into paste, then into blocks and then into the kiln. Foreign Portland cement at this time had full control of the market. About 1884-5 James M. Willcox, E. J. DeSmedt, and Robert W. Lesley took out patents for mixing liquid hydro-carbons with the paste, thus producing a material which could be compressed into balls and put at once into the kiln, saving the intermediate steps of drying, etc. These processes were based upon the use of the by-products of coal gas manufacture and were adopted in the works of the American Cement Company, at Egypt, Lehigh county, Pa. The later advance in the price of coal tar caused the abandonment of the process, but while it was in use, other inventions by Mathey, Navarro, and Ransome in the same direction gave rise to the establishment of the Atlas Portland Cement Company, which has large works in the Lehigh region, and produces great quantities
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of Portland cement. These processes, based originally upon the calcination of the crushed raw rock by oil in revolving kilns, were unsuccessful at first from the same causes that had given Mr. Saylor trouble in his early attempts. But improvements were made whereby the material was ground to an impalpable powder and slightly moistened before being run through the kilns. This method has proven wonderfully successful and is to-day the foundation of the great American Portland cement industry.
A clear conception of the cement industry cannot be gained without a general understanding of the inherent differences be- tween natural cement (before mentioned) and Portland cement, and the character of the raw rocks used as regards their chemical properties, etc. Broadly speaking, the natural cement is made from an argillaceous limestone, found in either crystalline or lam- inated form, and which when calcined contains from 40 to 55 per cent. of lime, or lime and magnesia, and from 45 to 60 per cent. of argillaceous material-silica, alumina, and iron oxide. These stones are found in many parts of the country and cement is made from them by burning in open kilns. The effect of the burning is to drive out the carbonic acid gas and the moisture. After burning, the material is first crushed and then ground to the finest powder. This natural cement is subject to a number of varia- tions that are beyond control of the producer : It is made from a rock which may vary from day to day in its constant ingredients ; it may contain more or less moisture ; its calcination in open kilns is a good deal dependent on the weather ; and the low temperature at which it is burned does not produce an absolute chemical union of all the ingredients. But it may be said to be a very safe and sound building material, produced in the best way out of "natural" material, containing the ingredients which nearly approach the standard of artificial cement. In its manufacture no attempt is made to expose the material to a degree of heat sufficient to bring all the ingredients into close chemical union and activity, and there is no attempt to break down the structure of the rock or to pro-
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duce a homogeneous material for calcination, other than the nat- ural rock.
Portland cement is essentially an artificial product. It began with the combination of the chalks and clays of England, mixed in such proportions as to produce the highest grade of the article. It can be produced by properly proportioning limestones, argil- laceous limestones, marls, with argillaceous limestones and forms of clays. The basic principle is that the combined material shall, after calcination, analyze from 55 to 65 per cent. in lime, and the remainder of silica, alumina, and oxide of iron. The further and all-important element is that all these materials shall be broken down into the finest powder, so that all the calcareous elements may find equally finely ground argillaceous elements with which to combine and form silicates and aluminates of lime in the chem- ical crucible of the kiln.
In the early days of the manufacture it was extremely difficult to overcome the widespread objection that the raw materials in America were dissimilar to those in England and that good Port- land cement could not be produced here. But experience and analysis have proved that the actual character of the ingredients used is not all-important, if the final composition is kept within fairly reasonable limits. This has been fully accomplished and the results of tests of the American product soon overcame the objections at first urged against it. A good Portland cement may be made from chalk, marl, or limestone containing carbonate of lime between 80 and 100 per cent., and clay containing silica be- tween 60 and 70 per cent. and alumina between 6 and 10 per cent., mixed in the proper proportions ; or, it can be made with argil- laceous limestone containing 60 to 70 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and limestone containing from 80 to 100 per cent. of car- bonate of lime, the remainder being silica and alumina. Broadly speaking, from these materials Portland cement is made.
The selection of raw materials with reference to their geo- graphical situation and their juxtaposition, convenience of fuel,
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and transportation facilities presents the first problem to the man- ufacturer. The relation of the selected materials to each other, whether soft or crystalline, constitutes, another problem for solu- tion, which is of the greatest importance; but these two problems solved, the success of manufacture then depends only upon eco- nomical handling, calcining and grinding of the materials.
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PENNSYLVANIA
The Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-obverse
In manufacturing the Portland cement what is known as the wet process was used in Europe and during many years in this country, with a number of minor variations in methods; but they were all predicated upon supplying to the flame in the kiln a properly proportioned, thoroughly pulverized and mixed material, made into forms of some kind, duly dried, and thus presenting to the flame a new rock containing all the necessary ingredients in proper mechanical union. These old methods have been greatly improved in America in many details, and especially through the use of the American dry kiln. This invention had its origin in Europe, and it proved a failure in England; but after some im-
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provements it was perfected until now the greater part of the American cement is made by its use. Briefly, this kiln is an iron cylinder sixty feet long by six feet in diameter, which is revolved about once each minute. Into one end of this the raw material is introduced and at the other a flame drives out the moisture and carbonic acid gas and subsequently calcines the material into a
CAN'T
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The Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-reverse
clinker in the form of small lumps. This product drops out at the lower end of the kiln, is conveyed to a cooler-a high iron tower with forced draught, whence it goes to the grinding ma- chinery. This so-called dry process effected great economy, and now more than three-fourths of the product of the country is thus made. But the use of dry raw material required heavy and costly crushing machinery, and American invention supplied it in several different forms. What is known as the Gates crusher, which had been largely used in the coal mining regions, was first adopted for the manufacture of cement in Lehigh county, Pa., and it is to-day the standard machine in all cement mills using rock as raw ma-
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terial. So, also, in grinding machinery, most important improve- ments have been made by American inventors, the principal one being the Griffin mill, through the use of which the preparation of the raw material was greatly cheapened.
In view of the fact that during thirty years past Portland cement has been the chief binding material in the heaviest ma- sonry in the world, it will be understood that great difficulty was long experienced in the introduction of the American product. In the early days of the industry, where the change from well known brands of the foreign product to the American involved a saving of only $2,000 or $3,000 on a building costing $1,000,000 or more, it was extremely difficult for the American cement to obtain a commercial foothold. But in time prejudice largely dis- appeared, the foreign cement was slowly crowded from the mar- ket, and our native product reached the high rank it now enjoys. Where twenty years ago the production of American Portland cement was about 85,000 barrels a year, it has rapidly and regu- larly increased until in 1901 it reached the enormous quantity of over 12,700,000 barrels; and this has been done without ma- terially reducing the product of 8,000,000 to 9,000,000 barrels of natural cement which are still being annually produced. At the same time, it should be noted that since 1890 the quantity of in- ported cement used has shown little variation from about 2,000,- 000 barrels annually.
As before stated, the works of David O. Saylor, at Coplay, Lehigh county. Pa., and the plant of the Wampum Cement Com- pany, in Lawrence county, were the first cement producers in this State. They manufactured substantially the whole of the 85,000 barrels mentioned as the product of 1882. During the early years, after the Wampum works ceased to produce in large quantities, it was the Saylor plant that was the largest contributor to the prod- uct until about 1885. The center of the Pennsylvania industry had been for years in the territory lying substantially between Phillipsburg, N. J., and Cementon and Siegfried's Bridge, in Le-
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high and Northampton counties, Pa. This field includes nearly all of the largest producing works in the United States and within it are gathered nearly three-fourths of the total producing capac- ity of the country. In 1890 there were sixteen works in the whole country, and those situated in Lehigh county, with one near Phillipsburg, N. J., produced about 60 per cent. of all the Port- land cement made in the United States; and almost continually since that year the same five works have produced 61 per cent. of the total output. In 1898 what is known as the Lehigh district produced in its eight works 72.4 per cent. of the 3,692,284 barrels made in the country ; and in 1899 the eleven works in this district produced 72.7 per cent. of the total. The figures for 1901 show that out of the 12,711,225 barrels total, the Lehigh district pro- duced 8,595,340 barrels. This district includes three works in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania are the Northampton, Phoenix, Dexter, Nazareth, Atlas, Lawrence, Reading, Bonneville, White- hall, Hercules, Coplay, Lehigh, Martin's Creek, and American Cement companies. Most of these companies have more than one plant. Outside of this district, and still in Pennsylvania, are the Clinton Cement Works, near Pittsburg, where slag cement is made, and the Crescent Cement Company, at Wampum, where Portland cement is made from limestone and clay.1
AGRICULTURE
If we take into consideration the geological formation and distribution, the general topography of Pennsylvania with its necessarily large area of mountainous and uncultivated lands, with the character of the soil in some limited districts, the State ranks high as a productive agricultural region. The character of the outcropping and underlying rocks in any given area and the influences arising from their decomposition have an important
1The information upon which the foregoing account of the cement industry in Pennsyl- vania is prepared is drawn from the very able
report to the Bureau of Industrial Statistics by Robert W. Lesley, of Philadelphia.
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bearing upon the soil and its productiveness. The geological formation in Pennsylvania includes three principal divisions of rocks. I. The Azoic and the Eozoic in the southeastern part, across which lies (2) the Mesozoic (the new red) in a belt twenty to thirty miles wide, extending from New Jersey into Maryland. 3. The Paleozoic series from the Potsdam sandstone to the coal measures, occupying the remainder of the State. The tertiary and upper secondary series do not extend across the Delaware river from the eastern side. A drift formation of sand and gravel covers the northern and northwestern counties, thinning away before the New York line is reached, except where it shows down the Delaware valley in the east and on the branches of the Ohio in the west. Along the middle of the northern bounds of the State the height of the table land probably prevented the forma- tion of this deposit, while the valley beds and the lower hills of the northwestern counties are heavily covered with it.
The gneissic rocks are limited to the southeastern counties, occupying a margin of varying width along the Delaware below Trenton, at Philadelphia reaching up the Schuylkill about ten miles, and displaced on the northwest by a narrow belt of par- tially metamorphosed lower Silurian limestone, which separates it from the red sandstone. This contains quarries of the white marble which has been so extensively used in Philadelphia and elsewhere for building and other purposes. Gneiss is spread over the north part of Chester county, and the Laurentian gneiss is believed to form the body of the Reading and Easton hill, and of the South mountain west of Harrisburg. Southwest from Philadelphia gneiss continues around the border of the State, the edge of the formation north of Maryland coming to a point south of Gettysburg in Adams county.
Across this gneiss region extend tracts of Serpentine rocks, forming the so-called "Serpentine barrens." In these rocks is found chrome iron ore, which has been profitably taken out at different points. The Lower Silurian formations contain great
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deposits of hematite iron ore, which have been extensively worked. The northern edge of the New Red sandstone ranges across the Delaware below Durham, passes westward across the Schuyl- kill just below Reading and the Susquehanna five miles below Harrisburg, inclining thence southward, and passes out of the State, keeping at the foot of South mountain on the Blue Ridge. The southern edge enters the State opposite Trenton and follows a general west course, passing the Schuylkill two miles below Norristown, the Susquehanna in the western corner of Lancaster county, and the State line in Adams county. This tract is almost exclusively occupied by the red sandstones, red shales and con- glomerates of the formation, and by numerous dykes of trap rock. The sandstones are quarried and supply good building material in several localities.
The lower members of the Paleozoic series lie on the north- west flank and foot of South mountain, beneath the magnesian Lower Silurian limestones of the Kittanning valley ; these fill the broad valley between the Kittanning and the Blue mountains on the one side, and South mountain on the other. Their range is marked by great fertility of soil and the finest agricultural region in the State is in this great valley, occupying the greater part of Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, and Franklin counties. The northern half of the valley is occu- pied by the Utica and Hudson river Lower Silurian slate, from which have been taken large quantities of roofing and other slate products.
Beyond towards the northwest ranges the central belt of Upper Silurian and Devonian mountains and valleys, as far as the main Alleghanies-a region famous for the beauty and grandeur of its natural scenery, but not well adapted to general agriculture. At the main Alleghanies the scene changes. As one passes west- ward he descends between and over innumerable rounded knobs and short ridges, around the sides of which outcrops the bitu- minous coal beds. The highest points of the Alleghanies are
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capped with the Conglomerate which underlies the bituminous coal formation, or by the lower members of the series, the strata dipping gently towards the west, and the formation increases in thickness in that direction and overspreads the whole western part of the State, excepting the northwest corner.
Topographically, in general terms, the surface of the State is level in the southeastern part; hilly and mountainous in the in- terior, and rolling and broken in the western part. The surface of the southeastern part is only slightly elevated above sea level; farther westward and northward appear a series of parallel ridges 1,500 to 2,500 feet in height, extending in a curving belt across the State from northeast to southwest, and from fifty to eighty miles in width. The first one of these ridges on the southeast is South mountain, which is a prolongation of the Blue Ridge of Virginia ; the last one on the west is the Alleghany range, which is the highest. From this range the surface slopes gradually towards the western State line. The Susquehanna river flows across the State in a general southern direction, drains a large part of these highlands and cutting in its passage many deep and tortuous canyons, collecting in a central valley and plain which separates the anthracite region on the east from the Devonian and Silurian mountains on the west, through which flows the Juniata. West of the Alleghany mountain backbone are three ridges about 2,500 feet in height, which pass out of the State into Maryland and Virginia. Generally speaking, the ridges east of the Alleghanies are too steep to be successfully cultivated, but the western slope is mostly arable even at high elevations. Pro- ductive valleys correspond to the general trend of the ridges, the principal one being Chester in the southeast part; Lebanon in the east ; Wyoming in the northeast ; Penn's and Juniata in the center ; Cumberland in the south, and Monongahela in the southwest.
Generally speaking, the soil of Pennsylvania is rich; this is especially true of the limestone region in the eastern part of the State, as well as in some of the counties on the Ohio river in the
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western part, which are underlaid with the same rock. The lime- stone areas are well adapted to grain raising, as also are the mountain valleys of the interior. In the northern part of the State good grazing soils predominate, especial productiveness rewarding the farmer on the upper Susquehanna in the northeast part. On the highlands of the central northern counties the soil is thin and cold, but proceeding westward and into the north- western part, better agricultural conditions prevail. The whole of the western border of the State, like the Ohio valley generally, is alike well adapted to grain raising and grazing. These latter soils are indicated by the character of the forest that formerly covered them. As will be seen in figures in later pages of this chapter, corn has during the past century been a great product between the Alleghanies and the Delaware river; wheat and rye have always been extensively produced in all the valleys of the State; tobacco during many years has been a large and profitable product in Lancaster and a few other counties. Orchard fruits of all kinds adapted to the climate, grapes and other small fruits in some districts have all added to the wealth and prosperity of the agricultural population.
The climate of Pennsylvania is widely varied, influencing in a corresponding degree the agricultural conditions. In the south- ern and eastern parts the summers are hot and the winters reason- ably temperate. On the Alleghany highlands and the central and northern uplands the winters are very severe, and in some localities there is seldom a month in the year without frost. It has been said of the wide and deep valleys of the Susquehanna that the climate and other conditions are such that they might be made "a continuous vineyard rivalling those of the Rhine and the Rhone." Until the middle of the last century Pennsylvania was pre-eminently a great and rich agricultural Commonwealth. From that time forward, the construction of numerous railroads and other transportation facilities gave a powerful impetus to a great variety of other interests.
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As early as 1682, according to statements of the founder of the colony, provisions were plentiful. In addition to such prod- ucts of the soil as could then be obtained, the Swedes and the Indians brought to the settlement large quantities of game. Deer were sold at 2s. each and corn sold for 2s. 6d. Horse mills were in use for grinding corn. An early settler wrote, "We have peaches by cart loads." Penn wrote in 1683 to the Society of Traders, of the agricultural products of his colony as being wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, squashes, pumpkins, and melons, "and all roots and herbs that English gardens supply." In 1718 he wrote of his possessions that "God has made of a desert an enclosed garden and the plantations about it a fruitful field."
In 1752 Franklin recorded that 10,000 hogsheads of flax seed were exported from Philadelphia, and the flax product all made into coarse linen in the settlers' homes. A map of that year gives the product in flour as 125,960 barrels. In 1765 there was ex- ported from Philadelphia 367,522 bushels of wheat and 148,887 barrels of flour, with over 60,000 bushels of corn.
The progress of agriculture in Pennsylvania, as in all other new settlements, was slow during many years after the arrival of the first pioneers. There were many causes contributing to this result. The early settlers found only a wilderness in which to lay their hearthstones and build their primitive homes. Al- though the forests were in many localities largely cleared of un- dergrowth, due to the Indian custom of frequently burning it out, still the clearing of the land to fit it for cultivation, even of the rudest sort, required time and arduous toil. Soon the settlers, notwithstanding Penn's humanitarian policy, began to suffer from Indian depredations, the terror from which, added to actual de- struction, served to greatly retard settlement and pioneer work in the interior. Wild beasts, too, had their influence in this direc- tion, an influence that was, however, more than offset, perhaps, by their great value in adding to the food supply. Seeds and shrubs for planting were frequently difficult to obtain. The
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character of the soil in different localities was not understood, causing loss where there might have been great gain. Tools were scarce and crude of construction. If brought from England they were often beyond the purses of those who felt their need. When better tools and the early machinery were available, many settlers were averse to their adoption. While German and Swedish settlers were industrious and persevering, they long
Central Part of Washington
From Day's Historical Collections
clung to prejudice against innovations. The adoption of im- proved tools and methods has always met with more or less oppo- sition in all countries, but with less, perhaps, in the United States than elsewhere. Laborers in some parts of enlightened England destroyed agricultural machinery as late as 1830. Wooden plows were the dependence of the Pennsylvania farmers until about the beginning of the last century. There was little attempt made towards improvement in agricultural methods until after the Revolutionary war. Enlightened men then began to appreciate the value of fertilizing, rotation of crops, the adoption of better tools, and the ultimate danger of exhaustion of soil. This senti- ment led in 1784 to the formation of the Society for the Improve- inent of Agriculture, in Philadelphia ; this was the same year that
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