A man and his wife, who was 8 months pregnant, were doing some holiday shopping in crowded mall. They had been trading humorous insults for most of the evening, and the man decided that he was going to really get her. He announced in a loud voice, "If you don't stop insulting me, I'm not going to marry you!"
He was disappointed that only a few people around them reacted, but his wife managed to bring down the house when she responded, "That's OK, I won't tell you who the father is!"
Portland cementIn 1824, in Yorkshire, England, Joseph Aspdin, a stone mason, patented Portland cement, made by burning finely pulverized lime and clay at high temperatures in kilns (UK patent No. 5022). Thus Aspdin had made a manufactured counterpart to natural or Roman cement - a crude formulation of lime and volcanic ash used as early as 27 BC. Aspdin produced a hydraulic cement that would harden with the addition of water. He named his invention "Portland cement" not only to distinguish it from Roman cement, but also as a marketing tool: concrete made from his new cement resembled a highly prized building stone quarried on the Isle of Portland off the British coast. Like flour in a fruit cake, cement glues aggregate (sand or gravel) together to make a "rock" (concrete). |
