Cement
Cement, calcium oxide produced by heating carbonate rock or shell and used as a hardening and binding agent when mixed with water and sand, was manufactured from limestone, marl, and shell deposits for local use in antebellum North Carolina. On a commercial basis, the Blue Ridge Lime Company of Buncombe County was producing cement as early as 1903. The limestone deposits at Castle Hayne in New Hanover County supplied a series of cement plants in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first centuries. Work at these deposits also provided many interesting fossil specimens for collectors.
Reference:
William F. Wilson, P. Albert Carpenter III, and Stephen G. Conrad, North Carolina Geology and Mineral Resources: A Foundation for Progress, North Carolina Geological Survey Educational Series No. 4 (1976).
Image Credit:
Lime Kiln and Quarry, Blue Ridge Lime Company, 1907. Image available from NCSU libraries. Available from http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/ua023_007-007-bx0025-002-002 (accessed October 5, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Seaman, Jean H.
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