cement

cement.
1. Substance to bind together the materials in concrete, mortar, etc., hardening it to a solid.

2. Render used to provide a finish to external walls, also called stucco. C18 types of cement-render included Liardet's Cement (which included oil), extensively used by the Adam Brothers, but it did not last, and fell off. More satisfactory was Parker's (also called Roman or Sheppey) Cement, discovered in 1796, which was widely used by Nash and his contemporaries, but it was a dark brown colour, so was sometimes called black cement: it did have one great advantage, however, in that it was waterproof. Atkinson's Cement, also called Yorkshire or Mulgrave Cement, was a better, lighter colour than Roman Cement, but was inclined to shrink and crack unless plenty of sand was used in the mix. Portland Cement, discovered by Joseph Aspdin (1779–1855) in 1794 and patented by him in 1824, was also widely used as a render, but again it had to be very weak and mixed with plenty of sand otherwise it cracked.

Bibliography

N. Davey (1961);
Gwilt (1903);
W. Papworth (1853–92)