Prof. Campbell On Cement

Prof. Campbell On Cement

He Is Making Test as to Proper Heat.

To Make Strong Cement

One of the Practical Benefits of Original Research Here.

Apropos of the article in yesterday's Argus relative to the efforts Nathan Pierce is making to secure a title to Four Mile Lake because of the extensive marl deposits therein and the possible erection of Portland Cement works, it may be interesting to know that Prof. Edward D. Campbell, professor of analytical chemistry in the university, is doing research work having a direct bearing upon the manufacture of Portland Cement.

Many times the public gets the notion that the research work done in our educational institutions has no value in the ordinary affairs of business life, but no greater mistake could be made. Hundreds of discoveries which represent years of the most ardent labor in the laboratories are utilized in guarding the health and promoting business enterprises of all kinds. Said Prof. Campbell today: "I prefer to do research work the results of which have a direct bearing upon industrial matter rather than that which is of interest chiefly to the scientist. " The work which he is doing now may be grouped under two divisions: First, the influence of the temperature, at which cement is burned, on the properties of the cement. The higher the temperature at which it is burned the stronger the cement is, until a certain maximum is reached when the cement becomes over burned and is then of little or no value.

Second, the relation between the chemical composition of the raw materials and the temperature at which they should be burned to produce the strongest cement. That is, the professor proposes to determine just what quantities of marl and clay of known quality are to be mixed and burned at a given temperature to produce cement of a given strength. These points which he is investigating, it will be seen, have a direct bearing upon the manufacture and cost of Portland Cement. In fact the manufacture is a problem in applied chemistry. Prof. Campbell thinks it will take him a year and a half to satisfactorily complete his investigations but he expects ultimately to establish a formula embodying the before mentioned points. To aid him in his investigation, Fairbanks, Morse & Co., of Chicago, recently sent him as a present to be the property of the laboratory, an automatic Cement Tester worth $100. It is a fine piece of apparatus and the professor is delighted with it and is very grateful to the before mentioned firm for thus remembering him.

Professor Campbell says there is a large amount of marl in Washtenaw but the clay here is probably not the kind for manufacturing cement.