mbinsewi softail86mark Cinder blocks are called that because the aggregate used is a lightweight expanded shale which was "cooked" to expand it. Hence, cinders. It has nothing to do with coal. My family was in the business of making them since WWII. Thank you! Although what your family makes with the shale process, is more commonly called "light weight" block" in these parts. No granulated coal or volcanic cinder involved. It's easy to tell when you demolish a building buildt with "cinder blocks", as the are very porous, and dark in color. Because of the materials used, they were also "light weight", compared to todays CMU's. I have to stick with my original post, in that the period before, and during the depression, around the industrialized area of SE. WI. and Northern IL., including the Chicago area, some amount of coal clinker was used in making "cinder blocks" I've never made'em, but I sure have laid my share. Mike.
softail86mark Cinder blocks are called that because the aggregate used is a lightweight expanded shale which was "cooked" to expand it. Hence, cinders. It has nothing to do with coal. My family was in the business of making them since WWII.
Thank you! Although what your family makes with the shale process, is more commonly called "light weight" block" in these parts.
No granulated coal or volcanic cinder involved. It's easy to tell when you demolish a building buildt with "cinder blocks", as the are very porous, and dark in color. Because of the materials used, they were also "light weight", compared to todays CMU's.
I have to stick with my original post, in that the period before, and during the depression, around the industrialized area of SE. WI. and Northern IL., including the Chicago area, some amount of coal clinker was used in making "cinder blocks"
I've never made'em, but I sure have laid my share.
Mike.
My mistake. Not having done it myself in literally 45 years, I must admit I've let my knowledge lapse a little. Plus, I'm in California and don't know all the construction and manufacturing processes of the other states in other times.
Thanks for the lesson, Mike...
Mark C., Oroville
WP Lives
No mistake Mark, just exchanging information !
It is a regional thing, that's for sure. And the time period also makes a difference, as to methods and technoligy.
I worked the the Tampa, FL area for a short time, (1978) in the trades, concrete, and the first time I discovered that the major portion of the aggregate in the mix was shells!. Yea, you dig a pit in that part of FL. you get sand and shells.
But I digress, back to the topic of moving all this by rail.
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