Development Of Cement Industry And Technology In Late Qing Dynasty And Republic Of China(1889-1949)

Cement is a great invention in the process of human development,widely used in railway construction,municipal engineering,housing construction,bridge engineering,water conservancy construction and other fields.It is known as the food of modern architecture,and plays an important role in the national economic construction.Since Tang Tingshu introduced cement manufacturing technology from abroad and established Tangshan Ximiantu Plant in 1889,the Cement industry in China has been for more than a hundred years.Now the annual output of China's cement industry has reached 2.33 billion tons,ranking the first in the world for many years,and the technology of it is also at the forefront.Cement technology,as one of the western technologies introduced into China in the early modernization period,how it landed and rooted in China,and finally laid the cornerstone of the development of modern cement industry,the process is worth tracing.This thesis selects the cement industry and technology in the late Qing dynasty and the Republican China as the historical research object.On the basis of previous studies,by discovering historical materials and using the method of literature research and comparative analysis,it analyzes how the western cement technology was introduced and developed.What are the different characteristics of China's cement industry construction in different stages?What difficulties and problems it encountered?How was this problems resolved and what was the impact?The thesis tries to reveal the relationship between the development of cement industry and the introduction,innovation and change of cement technology,and enrich the research content of modern industrial history and technological history.Firstly,the thesis reviewed the development of traditional cementitious materials in ancient China,and introduced the process of the birth and early development of cement technology in the world.On these bases,the background,process and result of the development of China's cement industry in the initial stage and the introduction of cement firing technology are emphatically discussed and analyzed.After the first opium war,the door was opened and foreign cement began to be imported to China,and gradually replaced the traditional cementing materials.In 1889,in order to meet the construction needs of government-run industrial and mining enterprises,the cement industry of the country was developed.Tang Tingshu,a personage of westernization,founded the first national cement plant in Tangshan,Hebei which named Tangshan Ximiantu Plant.This is the start of the cement industry in China.In the process of setting up the plant,the firing technology of cement was introduced to China via the purchase of cement production equipment from abroad and the employment of technicians.Due to improper business strategy and lack of industrial policy,Tangshan Ximiantu Plant was declared closed after only two years of operation,but the enterprise laid the foundation for the rise of China's national cement industry.The second part of this thesis summarizes the historical background and development of the modern cement industry in the rapid development stage(1907-1936),and analyzes the achievements and problems of the cement industry in this stage.Taking Qixin Cement Company as an example,the achievements of cement technology innovation in this period are discussed.Due to the rapid development of industrial and commercial mining after the Sino-Japanese War,the establishment of the Republic of China and the outbreak of World War I,and the construction of the golden decade of Nanjing national government,the cement industry developed during 1907-1936.Qixin,Huashang,China and other national cement factories had been established and put into production one after another.The strength of the cement industry had increased significantly and achieved impressive results.During this period,the cement plant represented by Qixin Cement Company upgraded the cement equipment from dry processing to wet processing,by upgrading the raw material processing,clinker calcination and motive equipment of the cement,the quality of the domestic cement was improved,and the cement processing technology of our country was innovated.The third part studies the stagnation and technological changes of cement industry that existed from 1937 to 1949.The outbreak of the comprehensive war of resistance against Japan made the cement industry suffer great losses and come to a standstill.At the same time,the relationship between supply and demand of cement and the layout of cement industry also changed.In order to guarantee the Anti-Japanese War and the construction of the country,the government began to guide and participate in the production of cement industry.Although the cement industry during the war made contributions to the establishment of the Anti-Japanese War,due to the Japanese bombing by the Japanese Army and the blockage of the imported channels of equipment,the output has never returned to pre-war levels.After the war,the actual output of the cement industry did not increase significantly due to factors such as foreign dumping,the outbreak of the civil war,and the resumption of the cement tax.On the technical level,Wang tao,Hu qingquan and others designed semi-mechanized shaft kilns themselves during the war because they could not import clinker calcining equipment.In addition,Wang Heting,a technician at the Dredging the Huaihe River Committee,made technical improvements to the lime-clay substitute cement imported from India,and produced and used it as an alternative solution to Portland cement.It expanded the variety of cement industry products and had made great contributions to the construction of water conservancy and shipping in the rear area.Regarding cement standards,relevant agencies began to formulate the standards,and in 1947 officially announced the first cement standard specification in China.The fourth part of this paper makes an overall evaluation of the cement industry and technology in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,and analyzes the development characteristics,achievements and shortcomings of the cement industry in modern times.The influence of modern cement industry foundation on the development of cement industry after 1949 was discussed as well.Overall,the development of cement industry and technology in modern times is extremely difficult and tortuous.Severely damaged by the war,under tremendous foreign dumping pressure,the government's industrial policy absence in the early stages of its development;But a series of supporting policies and measures had also been introduced by the government in the later period,and the cement industry personnel had been working tirelessly to localize efforts from technology to standards.In the special historical environment of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,the cement industry also has some deficiencies that cannot be ignored,such as excessive reliance on imported equipment,inadequate product varieties,and inadequate industrial systems.Despite this,the modern cement industry had provided an important foundation for the cement industry of New China in terms of industrial layout,technical equipment base,and personnel reserves.