Joseph Aspdin

Bricklayer and inventor, born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, N England, UK. A stonemason by trade, in 1824 he patented what he called Portland cement, manufactured from clay and limestone.

Joseph Aspdin (1788 – 20 March 1855) was a British mason, bricklayer and inventor who patented a process for making Portland cement on 21 October 1824. This first true artificial cement was the first real improvement on cement since John Smeaton had made the first modern concrete by mixing powdered brick and adding pebbles as aggregate back in 1756.

However, the cement Aspdin produced was not a true cement, but an artificial version of the hydraulic lime patented by James Parker, who called his product "Roman Cement." William Aspdin falsely claimed that his father's cement was employed by Sir Marc Brunel in his Thames Tunnel – this was probably the first major civil engineering project to use such cement. Brunel's diaries show that the cement used was "Roman Cement" made by Francis and Whyte.