Coplay Made Cement: Cement Made Coplay

Coplay Made Cement: Cement Made Coplay. . , "Cement means concrete and concrete means stone , and stone means strength and permanence." , Joseph S. Young, President , Lehigh Portland Cement Company, BIRTHPLACE OF CEMENT , Coplay can be called the birthplace of the modern American cement industry. Its two most important developments, portland cement and the horizontal rotary cement kiln, were introduced in the latter part of the 19th century., In 1875, David O. Saylor's Coplay Cement Company began producing his patented portland cement. Portland cement is stronger and more versatile than the "natural" cement Saylor had made here for nearly a decade, and his new process used the same types of limestone. The difference was the rock was ground nearly to dust and burned at much higher temperatures. This was the first time portland cement was manufactured in the United States. During the next decade, sixteen new portland cement mills were built around the Lehigh Valley and the rest of the U.S., but Saylor's Portland Cement was the standard against which all the rest were measured., In 1889 Jose de Navarro, a New York entrepreneur and inventor, built the first successful rotary cement kiln just north of the Coplay Cement mills. The plant, known as the Old Valley Mill, was put into production on November 8, and turned out an average of 200 barrels of cement a day under the company name Keystone Cement. The horizontal rotary kiln was far more efficient than vertical kilns, producing more cement in less time and requiring less fuel and labor, and replacing vertical kilns everywhere by the early 20th century., Navarro's company was renamed the Atlas Cement Company of New York, and became the Atlas Portland Cement Company in 1899. The first Atlas cement plant in Northampton began operations in 1896, and the Old Valley Mill was shut down in 1907. By then, the Lehigh Valley was producing 70% of all the Portland cement used in this country., [Photo captions, counterclockwise from top left, read] , . David O. Saylor , . Jose de Navarro , . Old Valley Mill, Site of the first horizontal rotary kiln