Cement Mortar and Concrete: Preparation and Use for Farm Purposes by Philip L. Wormeley, Jr. introduces concrete work for readers without technical training. Issued in 1905 as Farmers’ Bulletin 235 of the United States Department of Agriculture, it connects the preparation of a mixture with familiar farm improvements. The author was a testing engineer in the Office of Public Roads.
An elementary introduction to materials
The opening explanation distinguishes hydraulic cement from lime and discusses Portland and natural cement. Storage receives attention before mixing begins, because material that has been damaged by moisture cannot be treated as equivalent to properly stored cement. This practical sequence is characteristic of the bulletin: it starts with the conditions that make later work possible.
Mortar is explained separately from concrete. The text discusses proportions, sand, water, mixing and grout, followed by lime-and-cement mortar and mortar for plastering. These distinctions help a reader understand why a mixture intended to fill masonry joints has different demands from one used in a solid concrete object.
The aggregate discussion covers gravel, crushed stone and cinders, including the comparison between stone and gravel. Material selection is tied to the available supply and the spaces between particles. The result is a useful historical account of why the ingredients matter, rather than a catalogue of finished structures alone.
Proportioning, mixing and placing
The concrete section considers proportioning materials, aggregates containing fine material, mechanical mixers and hand mixing. Consistency is treated as part of the work, not simply a matter of adding enough water to make handling easy. The bulletin also discusses quick-setting cement, coloring and depositing the mixture.
Several shorter topics reveal the range of difficulties that early users encountered. Retempering, exposure to sea water, work in freezing weather, rubble concrete and facing are all included. The discussion of wood for forms connects the concrete operation with the temporary carpentry that determines its shape.
For a reader studying self-sufficiency, these pages show how preparation, measurement, tools and timing fit together. They also demonstrate the limits of treating concrete as a material that can be judged only after it hardens. Its behavior depends on decisions made while selecting and placing the ingredients.
Walks, floors and steps
The sidewalk section follows the work from excavation and preparation of the subgrade through the subfoundation, foundation and wearing surface. Construction details include dividing the walk into sections and finishing its edges. Small illustrations show tools used for these operations.
Separate sections address basement floors, stable floors and driveways. Their inclusion makes the booklet especially relevant to the history of farm buildings, where the intended use of a surface affects drainage, wear and arrangement. Concrete steps provide another example of combining a shaped form with reinforcement and careful placement.
These examples are best read alongside the general mixing material. A drawing of a finished walk or step does not contain the whole process. The bulletin’s structure repeatedly brings the reader back to foundations, materials and the handling of fresh concrete.
Fence posts, blocks and experimental evidence
Reinforced concrete fence posts receive a substantial treatment. Wormeley compares post materials, discusses reinforcement and concrete, illustrates wooden molds with two or four tapering sides, and explains ways to attach fence wire. Molding and curing are included before the shorter discussion of building blocks.
The appendix gives the booklet a second purpose as a record of testing. It presents concrete-post experiments, including static loads and impact, and examines retempering mortar. A final diagram relates varying quantities of clay in sand to the measured strength of mortar. These are observations from particular historical tests, not universal performance guarantees.
Audience and use of the scan
This free ebook suits agricultural-history readers, building researchers and people interested in the development of practical concrete instruction. Its illustrated examples make the relationship between material preparation and farm use easy to follow. Present-day structural work requires current designs and standards. The 32-page PDF includes searchable text, tables and line drawings; occasional recognition errors mean that the scanned page remains the authority when checking a figure or label.
Book details
- Author: Philip L. Wormeley, Jr.
- Publisher: Government Printing Office, Washington
- Year: 1905
- Edition: USDA Farmers’ Bulletin 235
- Digital length: 32 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 1.14 MB
