NINETY-EIGHT, AND STILL BUSY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1908, Page 3

NINETY-EIGHT, AND STILL BUSY.

INTERESTING CAREER OF INVENTOR OF PORTLAND CEMENT. Still hard at work, though, nearly ninety-eight years of age, and yet co delicate as a child that his mother despaired of rearing him, is the remarkable record of Isaac Charles Johnson, now one of the most respected residents of Graveeend, and the first man to make "Portland cement." Active -and alert, physically and mentally, he has still so much of business ability in reserve as to commend himself to thd limited liability company of I. C. Johnson and Co., of which he is chairman and consulting director. To a representative of Lloyd's News Mr. Johnson talked with modesty of his extraordinary career, offering an objectlesson in industry and perseverance to the boys of to-day. "I began," he remarked, "as a, poor boy, the son of poor parents, Laving nothing of education beyond just the 'three H's.' "I was first of all cent to work for a. bookseller in Craven-street, Strand ; but, although it gave me opportunities for good reading, tho work was beyond my strength, for T was a very weak lad, and the despair of my mother. "Next I went to work at Vauxhall, engaging myself £o Messrs. Francis and. I White for four shillings a week. "Later I was apprenticed as a builder for four years, my wage for the last year being only eighteen shillings a week. "Bui I wanted something better than that, so I studied at night, and when I | knew enough of my fcra'de, used to teach othera, and so add to my earnings. "When I had finished my apprenticeship I worked a - year as a journeyman. But I had learned drawing among othet thfngs, and when a firm of architects ! suddenly lost their principal draughtsi man, they heard of me, and asked me to I assist them in the evenings." That was tho beginning oi better times, and since then his tortunes have suffered no serious reverse. His employer heard of his evening work for the architect, and, being a wise man, thought if Johnson was of use to another firm, he would be of use to him. So into his drawing office h© went. Then he began more serious studies, and, being a veritable glutton for knowledge, he added the* study of jsciencsa and lanugages to his recreations. THE FIRST "PORTLAND CEMENT." In the meantime Mr. White had separated Irom his old partner at Vauxhall, and was desirous of building premises at Swanscombe, in Kent. The new premises were built for him by the man who,_ as a boy, he had employed at four shillings a week. He also | built for them an "Elizabethan" coi- ! tage that is still standing. "That was j over seventy years ago," the aged gentleman remarked, with a pleased laugh, [ adding : "I was only twenty-two then, | and I stayed with Mr. White fourteen more. ' "While I was there I continued my studies in chemistry and other subjects, and experimented in various ways. As a result of one of my experiments I produced the first 'Portland cement' ever made, which brought a great deal of money for the firm. But it was not done without plenty of 'candle burning,' for I v >rked until eleven or twelve at night, ard while the firm had made an immense fo.rf.une out of the cement discovery, I got my reward, because it made my j name well known over the whole world. Now I. C. Johnson and Co., Ltd., have agents in every part of the globe where j cement is used. "And we own a quarter of a mil© of ' cement works on the Tyne, and supply j Germany from there ; as. well as works extending three miles along the river Thames, commencing at Greenhithe, from which we supply the French Government with many thousands of tons of cement every year ; and other works at Cliff e. "Fourteen years in all I spent in Newcastle and Gateshead, and after a. little i while they made me mayor of the latter town and an alderman. I am now a magistrate for Gravesend." One of Mr. Johnson's recreations is photography ; another is bicycling. The first he took up forty years ago, at a time when he had to make his own plates, and, if he wanted to work any distance from home, had to take a whole load of apparatus, including a tent. Bicycling he only learned when about eighty-seven years of age. Mr. Johnson is a man of independent thought, an earnest teetotaler, a writer of pamphlets, a preacher at times, in various parts of the world, and a courteous English gentleman of extremely attractive manner. He has been twice married, each of his wives being total abstainers, as are all ais children.