Seventy-Five Years Of Progress In The Nonmetallics

Two striking events marked the year 1871-the establishment of the A.I.M.E. and the beginning of the portland cement industry, the most spectacular of all the nonmetallics in its development. Just as David Saylor's first portland cement, made in a little mill at Allentown, Pa., in that year was the forerunner of a mighty industry, the products of which in 1942 were made in 155 plants scattered throughout the country (having attained a value of nearly $300,000,000), so the Institute from its small beginning has attained a membership of many thousands, likewise decentralized into a series of individual sections of wide geographical distribution. Concurrent with the establishment of the Institute was also the invention of the steam drill, followed by the compressed-air drill about 1904. These mechanical drills were so immeasurably in advance of the hand drill and hammer used previously that quarrying and mining of present-day magnitude could never have been attained without them. Some outstanding occurrences have marked this eventful three quarters of a century. The concrete age, with its enormous demands for cement, aggregates and steel, is of primary importance. Of interest also is the shift of fertilizers from the organic to the mineral field. Nitrates, primarily obtained