EXPERT ON CEMENT

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 16

EXPERT ON CEMENT

Research On Hardening

Professor H. F. W. Taylor, professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, is an expert on cement who believes university chemists have tended, in the last 15 years, to concentrate on academic research at the expense of applied chemistry.

“I would be the last to deny the universities’ primary academic role,” he said in Christchurch yesterday, “but I firmly believe we have a job to do also for industry and the community.” Professor Taylor’s research chiefly concerns the hardening processes of cement “Many people do not realise that concrete normally gets stronger over two years from the time it is laid. Admittedly a major part of this increased strength builds up in the first month,” he said.

“But it would be very good if we could make a concrete building really hard within hours rather than days or a bigger structure gain full strength in days rather than weeks or months,” said Professor Taylor. Professor Taylor’s New Zealand visit is being sponsored by the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and he addressed the Canterbury branch last evening.