Building Materials made of Waste Materials

Abstract

WE have in Great Britain large accumulations of blast furnace slag, of cinders, and clinker, and in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh of burnt shale, the residue from the stills of the oil industry. There are three ways in which these materials can be utilised-for the production of bricks, for the production of cement, and as aggregate mixed with Portland cement or plaster of Paris. The general method adopted for the production of bricks is known as the sand lime process. Briefly, this process consists of mixing the aggregate with a certain proportion of lime and water, squeezing it into a brick under a pressure of some two hundred tons to the area of the brick and then steaming under high pressure or in open steaming chambers. Bricks are now being manufactured by this process from sand, blast furnace slag, granulated by being run while hot into water, clinker, town refuse, slate dust, and burnt shale.