Concrete Foundations of the Anthropocene
Title
Concrete Foundations of the Anthropocene
Subject
The modern age of concrete began in 1845 during the second industrial revolution when Isaac Johnson patented a new technique for its manufacture in England. Concrete quickly spread across the world and arrived in Nebraska by the late nineteenth century. Nebraska opened its first cement plant in Louisville in 1929. The Louisville plant is the most likely source of cement for the old buildings in Omaha, including its Union Station (now The Durham Museum) which was completed in 1931.
Today, concrete is the world’s most used building material. It is a global commodity consumed at a rate of 1 ton per person per year. Concrete is made from gravel, sand, cement, and water. Production takes an intense, and largely hidden, toll on the environment. Materials must be strip mined and processed using incredible amounts of energy. Concrete accounts for 5% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Concrete, more than any other building material, is the foundation of the Anthropocene.
Today, concrete is the world’s most used building material. It is a global commodity consumed at a rate of 1 ton per person per year. Concrete is made from gravel, sand, cement, and water. Production takes an intense, and largely hidden, toll on the environment. Materials must be strip mined and processed using incredible amounts of energy. Concrete accounts for 5% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Concrete, more than any other building material, is the foundation of the Anthropocene.
Description
Concrete surrounds us; we build with it, drive on it, walk on it, and live in it. It forms the infrastructure that allows us to live life the way we do today, yet, we rarely stop to think about it. Concrete has now become the world’s most used building material, but despite its pervasiveness, there is one aspect many people forget to consider when they see concrete and that is where it comes from: the earth. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2017) Since it is currently one of the most important commodities to mankind, it only fuels the argument that man is reshaping the world.
Our object is a part of the foundations of The Durham Museum (Figure 1). The foundations of The Durham, like much of Omaha and much of the industrial world, are built with concrete. This essay explores the history of concrete and its main ingredient, cement, in a local and global context paying particular attention to its environmental consequences. Concrete is an important artifact in Omaha’s environmental history because it has shaped the way we live from the ground up through structures, roads and art. It links Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene because it is used worldwide in our globalized civilization and has far-reaching environmental impacts, from the composition of the atmosphere to land use changes resulting from mining.
The substance we know as “concrete” is a mixture of materials, including cement. Cements are powders comprised of naturally occurring rock deposits (natural cements) or combinations of ingredients (artificial or “Portland” cements), and both of which include clay and lime in varying proportions. The concrete foundations of The Durham are likely derived from this second, artificial form, meaning the concrete is comprised of Portland cement.
In the preparation of Portland cement, raw ingredients are ground to a powder, burned in kilns, and then milled. When mixed with water and allowed to harden, cement creates a material of great compressive strength and, depending on its chemical composition, one that may also harden under water. Concrete consists of gravel, sand, cement, and water blended to create a liquid that can be poured into place, where it then hardens, or cures, to achieve a solid mass. (Nature, 1941)
Concrete was developed over 150 years ago, yet the mixture has not changed all that much. Joseph Aspdin, an inventor, discovered that when a mixture of limestone and clay was heated, it hardened. By firing the calcium carbonate contained in the stone, it would decompose forming calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Calcium oxide reacts with water to produce calcium hydroxide. These reactions create the paste which is cement. He named his invention “Portland cement”, because it resembled the Portland stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England.
The modern-day cement was formed by an innovator named Isaac Johnson in 1845. Johnson refined Aspdin's cement process by roasting the mixture of limestone and clay at higher temperatures, allowing the substances to bind together better. The resulting material proved a lucrative and popular building material because it is moldable and durable. The relatively simple technological process of cement production led to a rapid development of the cement industry in Europe and the United States in the second half of the 19th century. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017) From this point on, worldwide construction would be forever changed.
Concrete made its arrival into the United States in the 1860s. It brought new procedures and priorities of mass production to construction, including the application of science to commercial enterprise and a redistribution of skills, opportunities, credit, and risk in the workplace. (Slaton, 2001) As a main ingredient in concrete, many people would make the claim that cement is the most important binding construction material, because of its ability to harden in air and underwater. The buildings, dams, roads and bridges that surround us today would not have been created without cement. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017)
Concrete came to Nebraska in the late nineteenth century, likely through rail car imports from the Ash Grove cement plant in Ash Grove, Missouri. Not long afterwards, Nebraska opened its own cement plants: one in Superior and another in Louisville. (Lesley, 2017) The Louisville cement plant was an extension of the one in Ash Grove and was built in 1929. (Ash Grove, 2017)This is the most likely source for cement in Omaha until they built a cement plant in Omaha several years later. Therefore, many of the old buildings in Omaha are suspected to have been built with the cement from Louisville, Nebraska, including The Durham Museum. Construction on the Union station started in 1929. After twenty months and $3.5 million, construction on the 124,000 square-foot on the Union Station was finished. The Union Station, now known as The Durham Museum, opened on January 15, 1931 (Figure 2). (Durham Timeline)
The Union Station quickly became one of the busiest stations in the nation. In order to be considered a Union station, a train depot needed to serve more than one rail road line; Omaha had seven. The Union Station was especially important to Omaha because it connected the east and the west via railways. This allowed for passenger trains to make a stop in Omaha, bringing more tourism than before. At its peak, 64 passenger trains and some 10,000 passengers utilized the facility every day. The station once offered a wide range of amenities consisting of a taxi stand, baggage check, dining room, gift shop, telephone station, and even a barber shop. But, during the 1950s and 60s, air travel increased, and the Union station was eventually forced to close its doors in 1971, but reopened shortly after as a Museum in 1975. The original building of The Durham still stands today, not as a Union Station but as a Museum for the history of Omaha. The Durham Museum provides a unique experience for visitors and tells the story of Omaha using artifacts. Although we don’t often consider it as such, the building itself is an artifact. (Durham Timeline)
There are several reasons why concrete and cement became so popular as building materials. One reason is the sheer strength that these mixtures have. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was much sturdier and longer lasting than other commonly used construction materials such as wood. During the second world war concrete started to become reinforced with metal bars, which was an addition that gave concrete the ability to withstand the bending, or tensile, forces to which floors, ceilings, beams, and columns are subjected to within a building. Secondly, concrete was fire proof. People did not have to worry about the material catching fire. Also, concrete was less expensive than methods of ceramic cladding because the ingredients used in concrete could be found in abundance. (Nature, 1941) Lastly, the production of concrete was easily mechanized. Concrete is a building material that people can control and form quite easily with the help of machines, making it an efficient building material. With these numerous advantages, concrete achieved widespread use and remains the most popular building material used today.
Although concrete has developed our modern world, it also impacts the natural environment on a global scale. To understand the ways in which concrete affects the environment, we need to consider the rates at which it is consumed by an average person. Concrete is a global commodity consumed at a rate of about 1 ton per year for every human being. Only water consumption is greater. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) Out of all the materials used by people on earth, concrete is number one. Thinking about concrete's consumption rates can be puzzling and perhaps counterintuitive, because average people do not purchase or think about their interactions with concrete every day. Rather than thinking of private ownership, consider public commodities. People drive their cars on concrete every day; cars are then parked on concrete in parking lots; next, people walk along concrete sidewalks upon arriving at their destination; finally, people work and live inside concrete structures. These are not typical considerations made by most people, but thinking in this way helps to develop and form a more complete understanding of how humans impact their global environment.
Global consumption rates of cement are projected to continue increasing into the future. In 2010, world production of cement equaled 3,310 million metric tons. Five years later it increased to 4,100 million metric tons. Consumption rates are not predicted to decrease within the near future. (USGS, 2017) Obviously, those are very large numbers, but they do not have any meaning if they are not put into context (Figure 3). All things humans use come from nature, with some materials being closer to their natural form than others, but regardless, everything is sourced from the earth. The ingredients of concrete fit into this scheme and consumption patterns mirror environmental impacts of the industry.
Today, much of the research on the environmental impact of concrete production focuses on the emission of greenhouse gases. which may be a surprising concept to those unaware of the material’s production methods. It is not often that people think about how and where the everyday materials they interact with are made of or come from. Recall that the basic ingredients of concrete are cement, water, coarse aggregates and fine aggregates. These ingredients must be sourced from available natural resources and put into a useable form. The acquisition of these ingredients contributes to emissions. In addition, so does the batching, transport and actual placement of concrete, because all these steps require an energy input, which are typically in the form of fossil fuels. The production of Portland cement also has environmental impacts, because carbon dioxide is released during the processing phase when there is a decomposition of limestone. Overall, cement makes up the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions out of all the ingredients in concrete, accounting for 74% to 81% of the total carbon dioxide emissions released during production. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007)
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions released during production, mining makes profound changes to landscapes. Taken together, landscape alteration and emissions disturb local ecosystems, and consequently, the people and animals living in the area. Coarse aggregates are blasted out of the ground with explosives, the rubble is removed using diesel powered vehicles, taken to electric screening and crushing equipment, and once again transported using diesel powered vehicles to create stockpiles. Fine aggregates are strip-mined, which is a process where the land is opened by excavators. Extraction leaves giant, terraced holes in the ground so that materials from the earth’s crust can be obtained. The fine aggregates are also sorted with electric vibrating screens and transported to grading plants. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) The process of attaining coarse and fine aggregates alter and damage ecosystems through land alteration and emissions.
Just as research about the environmental impacts of concrete production has been completed, research about how to mitigate these impacts has also been completed. First, alternative fuels can be used during the production of cement to reduce fossil-fuel reliance and emissions. Refuse-derived fuels commonly utilized today are "used tires, animal residues, sewage sludge, waste oil, and lumpy materials." Waste-derived fuels consist of “shredded paper, plastics, foils, textiles, and rubber." (Tornal, 2013) In conjunction with alternative fuels, energy efficiency can lessen how much fuel is needed to produce cement, therefore reducing emissions. Finally, alternative ingredients can be used to produce cement and reduce environmental impacts. (Tornal, 2013) Waste products can be used as supplemental ingredients in cement, decreasing the waste that ends up in landfills and reducing land disturbance from mining. For example, ground blast furnace slag, a byproduct of the steel production industry, has been used as an ingredient in cement as has coal fly ash, a byproduct of the coal combustion practice. (Paris et al. 2016) Moving into the future, it is possible for concrete production to be more sustainable as people innovate and technology advances.
Concrete has global environmental impacts which links Omaha’s environmental history, including The Durham Museum, to the Anthropocene. Concrete is one of the most important commodities known to humans. It has not only changed the way we build, but it has also changed the environment all people live in by altering the composition of the atmosphere and changing natural landscapes as well. Concrete is only one part of the story concerning human’s relationship with nature. Although concrete has many impacts on the environment, it provides infrastructure which will always be a necessity for human well-being, but a more sustainable construction practice needs to be implemented before we pave our way through the future.
Our object is a part of the foundations of The Durham Museum (Figure 1). The foundations of The Durham, like much of Omaha and much of the industrial world, are built with concrete. This essay explores the history of concrete and its main ingredient, cement, in a local and global context paying particular attention to its environmental consequences. Concrete is an important artifact in Omaha’s environmental history because it has shaped the way we live from the ground up through structures, roads and art. It links Omaha’s environmental history to the global history of the Anthropocene because it is used worldwide in our globalized civilization and has far-reaching environmental impacts, from the composition of the atmosphere to land use changes resulting from mining.
The substance we know as “concrete” is a mixture of materials, including cement. Cements are powders comprised of naturally occurring rock deposits (natural cements) or combinations of ingredients (artificial or “Portland” cements), and both of which include clay and lime in varying proportions. The concrete foundations of The Durham are likely derived from this second, artificial form, meaning the concrete is comprised of Portland cement.
In the preparation of Portland cement, raw ingredients are ground to a powder, burned in kilns, and then milled. When mixed with water and allowed to harden, cement creates a material of great compressive strength and, depending on its chemical composition, one that may also harden under water. Concrete consists of gravel, sand, cement, and water blended to create a liquid that can be poured into place, where it then hardens, or cures, to achieve a solid mass. (Nature, 1941)
Concrete was developed over 150 years ago, yet the mixture has not changed all that much. Joseph Aspdin, an inventor, discovered that when a mixture of limestone and clay was heated, it hardened. By firing the calcium carbonate contained in the stone, it would decompose forming calcium oxide and carbon dioxide. Calcium oxide reacts with water to produce calcium hydroxide. These reactions create the paste which is cement. He named his invention “Portland cement”, because it resembled the Portland stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England.
The modern-day cement was formed by an innovator named Isaac Johnson in 1845. Johnson refined Aspdin's cement process by roasting the mixture of limestone and clay at higher temperatures, allowing the substances to bind together better. The resulting material proved a lucrative and popular building material because it is moldable and durable. The relatively simple technological process of cement production led to a rapid development of the cement industry in Europe and the United States in the second half of the 19th century. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017) From this point on, worldwide construction would be forever changed.
Concrete made its arrival into the United States in the 1860s. It brought new procedures and priorities of mass production to construction, including the application of science to commercial enterprise and a redistribution of skills, opportunities, credit, and risk in the workplace. (Slaton, 2001) As a main ingredient in concrete, many people would make the claim that cement is the most important binding construction material, because of its ability to harden in air and underwater. The buildings, dams, roads and bridges that surround us today would not have been created without cement. (Igliński and Buczkowski, 2017)
Concrete came to Nebraska in the late nineteenth century, likely through rail car imports from the Ash Grove cement plant in Ash Grove, Missouri. Not long afterwards, Nebraska opened its own cement plants: one in Superior and another in Louisville. (Lesley, 2017) The Louisville cement plant was an extension of the one in Ash Grove and was built in 1929. (Ash Grove, 2017)This is the most likely source for cement in Omaha until they built a cement plant in Omaha several years later. Therefore, many of the old buildings in Omaha are suspected to have been built with the cement from Louisville, Nebraska, including The Durham Museum. Construction on the Union station started in 1929. After twenty months and $3.5 million, construction on the 124,000 square-foot on the Union Station was finished. The Union Station, now known as The Durham Museum, opened on January 15, 1931 (Figure 2). (Durham Timeline)
The Union Station quickly became one of the busiest stations in the nation. In order to be considered a Union station, a train depot needed to serve more than one rail road line; Omaha had seven. The Union Station was especially important to Omaha because it connected the east and the west via railways. This allowed for passenger trains to make a stop in Omaha, bringing more tourism than before. At its peak, 64 passenger trains and some 10,000 passengers utilized the facility every day. The station once offered a wide range of amenities consisting of a taxi stand, baggage check, dining room, gift shop, telephone station, and even a barber shop. But, during the 1950s and 60s, air travel increased, and the Union station was eventually forced to close its doors in 1971, but reopened shortly after as a Museum in 1975. The original building of The Durham still stands today, not as a Union Station but as a Museum for the history of Omaha. The Durham Museum provides a unique experience for visitors and tells the story of Omaha using artifacts. Although we don’t often consider it as such, the building itself is an artifact. (Durham Timeline)
There are several reasons why concrete and cement became so popular as building materials. One reason is the sheer strength that these mixtures have. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was much sturdier and longer lasting than other commonly used construction materials such as wood. During the second world war concrete started to become reinforced with metal bars, which was an addition that gave concrete the ability to withstand the bending, or tensile, forces to which floors, ceilings, beams, and columns are subjected to within a building. Secondly, concrete was fire proof. People did not have to worry about the material catching fire. Also, concrete was less expensive than methods of ceramic cladding because the ingredients used in concrete could be found in abundance. (Nature, 1941) Lastly, the production of concrete was easily mechanized. Concrete is a building material that people can control and form quite easily with the help of machines, making it an efficient building material. With these numerous advantages, concrete achieved widespread use and remains the most popular building material used today.
Although concrete has developed our modern world, it also impacts the natural environment on a global scale. To understand the ways in which concrete affects the environment, we need to consider the rates at which it is consumed by an average person. Concrete is a global commodity consumed at a rate of about 1 ton per year for every human being. Only water consumption is greater. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) Out of all the materials used by people on earth, concrete is number one. Thinking about concrete's consumption rates can be puzzling and perhaps counterintuitive, because average people do not purchase or think about their interactions with concrete every day. Rather than thinking of private ownership, consider public commodities. People drive their cars on concrete every day; cars are then parked on concrete in parking lots; next, people walk along concrete sidewalks upon arriving at their destination; finally, people work and live inside concrete structures. These are not typical considerations made by most people, but thinking in this way helps to develop and form a more complete understanding of how humans impact their global environment.
Global consumption rates of cement are projected to continue increasing into the future. In 2010, world production of cement equaled 3,310 million metric tons. Five years later it increased to 4,100 million metric tons. Consumption rates are not predicted to decrease within the near future. (USGS, 2017) Obviously, those are very large numbers, but they do not have any meaning if they are not put into context (Figure 3). All things humans use come from nature, with some materials being closer to their natural form than others, but regardless, everything is sourced from the earth. The ingredients of concrete fit into this scheme and consumption patterns mirror environmental impacts of the industry.
Today, much of the research on the environmental impact of concrete production focuses on the emission of greenhouse gases. which may be a surprising concept to those unaware of the material’s production methods. It is not often that people think about how and where the everyday materials they interact with are made of or come from. Recall that the basic ingredients of concrete are cement, water, coarse aggregates and fine aggregates. These ingredients must be sourced from available natural resources and put into a useable form. The acquisition of these ingredients contributes to emissions. In addition, so does the batching, transport and actual placement of concrete, because all these steps require an energy input, which are typically in the form of fossil fuels. The production of Portland cement also has environmental impacts, because carbon dioxide is released during the processing phase when there is a decomposition of limestone. Overall, cement makes up the largest share of carbon dioxide emissions out of all the ingredients in concrete, accounting for 74% to 81% of the total carbon dioxide emissions released during production. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007)
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions released during production, mining makes profound changes to landscapes. Taken together, landscape alteration and emissions disturb local ecosystems, and consequently, the people and animals living in the area. Coarse aggregates are blasted out of the ground with explosives, the rubble is removed using diesel powered vehicles, taken to electric screening and crushing equipment, and once again transported using diesel powered vehicles to create stockpiles. Fine aggregates are strip-mined, which is a process where the land is opened by excavators. Extraction leaves giant, terraced holes in the ground so that materials from the earth’s crust can be obtained. The fine aggregates are also sorted with electric vibrating screens and transported to grading plants. (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) The process of attaining coarse and fine aggregates alter and damage ecosystems through land alteration and emissions.
Just as research about the environmental impacts of concrete production has been completed, research about how to mitigate these impacts has also been completed. First, alternative fuels can be used during the production of cement to reduce fossil-fuel reliance and emissions. Refuse-derived fuels commonly utilized today are "used tires, animal residues, sewage sludge, waste oil, and lumpy materials." Waste-derived fuels consist of “shredded paper, plastics, foils, textiles, and rubber." (Tornal, 2013) In conjunction with alternative fuels, energy efficiency can lessen how much fuel is needed to produce cement, therefore reducing emissions. Finally, alternative ingredients can be used to produce cement and reduce environmental impacts. (Tornal, 2013) Waste products can be used as supplemental ingredients in cement, decreasing the waste that ends up in landfills and reducing land disturbance from mining. For example, ground blast furnace slag, a byproduct of the steel production industry, has been used as an ingredient in cement as has coal fly ash, a byproduct of the coal combustion practice. (Paris et al. 2016) Moving into the future, it is possible for concrete production to be more sustainable as people innovate and technology advances.
Concrete has global environmental impacts which links Omaha’s environmental history, including The Durham Museum, to the Anthropocene. Concrete is one of the most important commodities known to humans. It has not only changed the way we build, but it has also changed the environment all people live in by altering the composition of the atmosphere and changing natural landscapes as well. Concrete is only one part of the story concerning human’s relationship with nature. Although concrete has many impacts on the environment, it provides infrastructure which will always be a necessity for human well-being, but a more sustainable construction practice needs to be implemented before we pave our way through the future.
Creator
Jacob Ohnstad
Sonya Ponzi
Sonya Ponzi
Source
Sources:
Concrete (image and physical objects, The Durham Museum Collections)
Abrams, Duff A. "The Contribution of Scientific Research to the Development of the Portland Cement Industry in the United States." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 119 (1925): 40-47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1015405.
“About Us.” Ash Grove Cement Company. Accessed October 20, 2017, https://www.ashgrove.com/about/.
Azizian, Mohammad, Peter O Nelson, Pugazhendhi Thayumanavan, and Kenneth J Williamson. “Environmental impact of highway construction and repair materials on surface and ground waters: Case study: crumb rubber asphalt concrete.” Waste Management 23, no. 8 (2003): 719-728. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-053X(03)00024-2. Science Direct.
Berryman, Charles, Jingyi Zhu, Wayne Jensen, Maher Tadros. “High-percentage replacement of cement with fly ash for reinforced concrete pipe.” Cement and Concrete Research 35, no. 6 (2005): 1088-1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.06.040.
“Cement Statistics and Information.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed December 9,2017. https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cement/.
Choo, B. S., and John Newman. Advanced Concrete Technology 1: Constituent Materials. Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003. EBSCOhost.
“Historic Timeline.” The Durham Museum. Accessed October 19, 2017. https://durhammuseum.org/our-museum/historic-timeline/.
Flower, David and Jay Sanjayan. “Greenhouse gas emissions due to concrete manufacture.” The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 12, no. 5 (2007): 282-288. Accessed November 12, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1065/lca2007.05.327.
Gorilla, G.P., K. Teknomo, K. Hokao. “An environmental assessment of wood and steel reinforced concrete housing construction.” Building and Environment 42, no. 7 (2007): 2778-2784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.021.
Igliński, Bartłomiej and Roman Buczkowski. “Development of cement industry in Poland – History, current state, ecological aspects.” Journal of Cleaner Production 141 (2017): 702-720. Accessed October 31, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.139.
Joshi, Ramesh & Rajinder Lohtia. Fly Ash in Concrete: Production, Properties, and Uses. Australia: Gordon and Breach, 1997.
Larsen, Lawrence Harold. Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. EBSCOhost.
Lesley, Robert. History of the Portland cement industry in the United States: with appendices covering progress of the industry by years and an outline of the organization and activities of the Portland Cement Association. Chicago: International Trade Press, Inc., 1924. Accessed November 10, 2017. Heathy Trust Digital Library.
Nature 148, no. 3764 (20 December 1941): 750. Accessed October 31, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1038/148750a0.
Nature 196, no. 4860 (22 December 1962): 1129-1130.
Paris, Jerry, Justin Roessler, Christopher Ferraro, Harvey DeFord & Timothy Townsend. “A review of waste products utilized as supplements to Portland cement in concrete.” Journal of Cleaner Production 121 (2016): 1-18. Accessed December 10, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.013.
Sharp, J. H. “Surely we know all about cement – don't we?” Advances in Applied Ceramics: Structural, Functional & Bioceramics 105, no. 4 (2006): 162-174. EBSCOhost.
Slaton, Amy E. Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Tornal, Fernando Pacheco. Eco-Efficient Concrete. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing, 2013. Accessed December 10, 2017. EBSCOhost eBook collection.
“USGS Small-scale Dataset - 100-Meter Resolution Impervious Surface of the Conterminous United States 201301 TIFF.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed December 10, 2017. https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usgs-small-scale-dataset-100-meter-resolution-impervious-surface-of-the-conterminous-united-st
Concrete (image and physical objects, The Durham Museum Collections)
Abrams, Duff A. "The Contribution of Scientific Research to the Development of the Portland Cement Industry in the United States." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 119 (1925): 40-47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1015405.
“About Us.” Ash Grove Cement Company. Accessed October 20, 2017, https://www.ashgrove.com/about/.
Azizian, Mohammad, Peter O Nelson, Pugazhendhi Thayumanavan, and Kenneth J Williamson. “Environmental impact of highway construction and repair materials on surface and ground waters: Case study: crumb rubber asphalt concrete.” Waste Management 23, no. 8 (2003): 719-728. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-053X(03)00024-2. Science Direct.
Berryman, Charles, Jingyi Zhu, Wayne Jensen, Maher Tadros. “High-percentage replacement of cement with fly ash for reinforced concrete pipe.” Cement and Concrete Research 35, no. 6 (2005): 1088-1091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2004.06.040.
“Cement Statistics and Information.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed December 9,2017. https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cement/.
Choo, B. S., and John Newman. Advanced Concrete Technology 1: Constituent Materials. Oxford, England: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003. EBSCOhost.
“Historic Timeline.” The Durham Museum. Accessed October 19, 2017. https://durhammuseum.org/our-museum/historic-timeline/.
Flower, David and Jay Sanjayan. “Greenhouse gas emissions due to concrete manufacture.” The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 12, no. 5 (2007): 282-288. Accessed November 12, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1065/lca2007.05.327.
Gorilla, G.P., K. Teknomo, K. Hokao. “An environmental assessment of wood and steel reinforced concrete housing construction.” Building and Environment 42, no. 7 (2007): 2778-2784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.021.
Igliński, Bartłomiej and Roman Buczkowski. “Development of cement industry in Poland – History, current state, ecological aspects.” Journal of Cleaner Production 141 (2017): 702-720. Accessed October 31, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.139.
Joshi, Ramesh & Rajinder Lohtia. Fly Ash in Concrete: Production, Properties, and Uses. Australia: Gordon and Breach, 1997.
Larsen, Lawrence Harold. Upstream Metropolis: An Urban Biography of Omaha and Council Bluffs. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. EBSCOhost.
Lesley, Robert. History of the Portland cement industry in the United States: with appendices covering progress of the industry by years and an outline of the organization and activities of the Portland Cement Association. Chicago: International Trade Press, Inc., 1924. Accessed November 10, 2017. Heathy Trust Digital Library.
Nature 148, no. 3764 (20 December 1941): 750. Accessed October 31, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1038/148750a0.
Nature 196, no. 4860 (22 December 1962): 1129-1130.
Paris, Jerry, Justin Roessler, Christopher Ferraro, Harvey DeFord & Timothy Townsend. “A review of waste products utilized as supplements to Portland cement in concrete.” Journal of Cleaner Production 121 (2016): 1-18. Accessed December 10, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.013.
Sharp, J. H. “Surely we know all about cement – don't we?” Advances in Applied Ceramics: Structural, Functional & Bioceramics 105, no. 4 (2006): 162-174. EBSCOhost.
Slaton, Amy E. Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Tornal, Fernando Pacheco. Eco-Efficient Concrete. Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing, 2013. Accessed December 10, 2017. EBSCOhost eBook collection.
“USGS Small-scale Dataset - 100-Meter Resolution Impervious Surface of the Conterminous United States 201301 TIFF.” U.S. Geological Survey. Accessed December 10, 2017. https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usgs-small-scale-dataset-100-meter-resolution-impervious-surface-of-the-conterminous-united-st
Rights
The Durham Museum
Collection
Citation
Jacob Ohnstad
Sonya Ponzi, “Concrete Foundations of the Anthropocene,” Omaha in the Anthropocene, accessed April 20, 2024, https://steppingintothemap.com/anthropocene/items/show/1.
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