ABSTRACT
The origins of modern day concrete based on Portland cement as the principal binder can be traced back to the first "civil engineer" John Smeaton w h o in 1756 commenced studies on hydraulic limes for the new Eddystone Lighthouse. The development of natural cement in the United States in the early nineteenth century for pioneering civil works, such as the Erie Canal, was a critical step. Other engineers such as L. J. Vicat and Charles Pasley worked in the intervening years so that by the mid-19th century the close identification of concrete with civil engineering was firmly established. I. K. Brunei's use of Aspdin's new Portland cement helped the acceptance of these later changes.
