This cotton cement bag held 125 pounds of cement powder. They were also porous. It would have been used about 1891 when both plants operated briefly at the same time.
This photo is the cement factory at Strathcona which made natural cement from only limestone. It used scrap slab wood from the Rathbun's saw mill for fuel.
The secondary mixing tanks for the Portland cement plant built in 1891 used two stirring arms. Raw material slurry entered on the right, finished slurry went to the holding tank.
This is the remains of one of the earliest static stone kilns used from 1867 to 1891. It was lined with fire bricks.
This steam engine was used to shunt raw materials around the Portland cement works from 1891 to 1900. Strathcona is to the left, That steeple remains there today.
This is the left side the the Fire Map of the Marlbank Cement Works in 1894. The grey lines are the rail lines serving the site. Dry Lake is off to the lower right side. Marlbank Road is built on top of the 3 parallel rail lines.
Inside the kiln room showing the original 5 kilns and two of the brick lined steel chimneys at Marlbank.
One of the stone walls still standing at the Marlbank site. This wall cannot stay standing much longer.
A dredger similar to this was used to dredge the lime from Dry Lake.
Dry Lake showing the depth of dredging in feet.
The bridge over the St.Lawrence River at Quebec City used Marlbank cement, as did the Panama Canal, Toronto City Hall, and the Peterborough Lift Locks.

Napanee Mills Cement Works, and The Canadian Portland Cement Co.

$24.50 Sale

This is a history book of the first cement plant in Ontario that began making natural cement starting in 1867 then it became the first place to make Portland cement anywhere in North America in 1891 in Strathcona on the shores of the Napanee River in Ontario.   Production later shifted to the Marlbank works by Dry Lake in 1900.  It's cement was used for the big bridge across the St.Lawrence River at Quebec City, the Panama Canal, Peterborough Lift locks and more.  Both sites were carefully examined, local stories and artifacts were collected and much information was found in the archives to give a good review of that important time.  There are many colour photos of the site, artifacts and historic maps too. This book has 59 pages.

 

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