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T. H. HOUGHTON. 



About 1889 Goodlet and Smith erected an up-to-date 

 plant at Granville, and in 1901 the Commonwealth Cement 

 Company, having taken over the Cullen Bullen property, 

 erected a 20,000 ton capacity plant at Portland. Since 

 then both companies have kept pace with modern require- 

 ments, replacing obsolete with the latest machinery, and 

 enlarging their plants to meet the ever increasing demand 

 for cement, until now their capacities aggregates nearly 

 200,000 tons per annum. The Commonwealth Company 

 produce 150,000 tons, and Goodlet and Smith's 40,000 tons. 



In 1916 the New South Wales Lime and Cement Company 

 erected a modern plant at Kandos, on the Mudgee line, 

 which has a capacity of 30,000 tons per annum, and this I 

 believe is to be increased to 60,000 tons. 



Another company — The Vulcan Portland Cement Com- 

 pany — are about to erect a plant at Brogan's Creek; war 

 conditions have, however, interfered with their arrange- 

 ments to have the machinery installed in 1915. 



A certain amount of cement has been imported each 

 year, ranging from 5,500 tons in 1908 to 30,000 tons in 1912, 

 but with the erection of two new plants, and the enlarge- 

 ment of existing ones, the local production should cope 

 with the demand for some years to come. 



The process of manufacture adopted is that known as the 

 "Dry Process," in which the raw materials are roughly 

 crushed and dried separately, then mixed together in their 

 proper proportions, and after further grinding and mixing 

 to reduce it to a very great degree of fineness, and 

 thoroughly mixing it so that the composition is homogene- 

 ous, it is calcined in rotary kilns at a temperature of about 

 3,000° Pah. and the resulting clinker ground to the requisite 

 fineness. 



These rotary kilns, seven to eight feet in diameter, consist 

 of a steel jacket and firebrick lining, set at such an angle 



