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Flooring
New LEVELROCK Brand Floor Underlayment PROFLOW™ Delivers Industry-Leading Strength for High-Traffic Commercial Use
LEVELROCK® Brand Floor Underlayment PROFLOW™, new from the Industrial Products Division of United States Gypsum Company, is the highest-strength gypsum underlayment ever introduced and the first gypsum-based product that can be used as a decorative finished floor in retail, office and other heavy-use commercial applications.
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Lime
USG's KEMIKAL® Lime meets a variety of Specialty uses
USG Industrial Products manufactures a complete line of KEMIKAL® lime products at its' plant in New Orleans, LA. USG's plant was the first lime facility in the U.S. to obtain ISO 9002 certification. The KEMIKAL family of products is used in a wide variety of industrial and food applications. Food grade lime is Kosher certified and meets all Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) specifications. High calcium, industrial grade calcium oxide products feature high purity and controlled slake characteristics.read more
Art and Statuary
New Gypsum Cement Enhances Productivity, Performance for Water-Holding Statuary Molding
New AQUACAST™ Ultimate Cement from USG Corporation Industrial Products provides an extra-high-performance, time-saving solution for all types of water-holding applications. The casting material, which is made from a proprietary, non-gypsum-based formulation, can increase productivity by as much as 300 percent over conventional cements. It is ideal for applications ranging from birdbaths and fountains to flowerpots.
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Question: What was the first use for Gypsum?
Answer: Like many attempts to sort out history from limited evidence, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact application and historical time frame. However, some ancient history researchers believe that gypsum has been in use in some form for as long as we have historical data. The first use of gypsum was probably as a carving medium since some forms of gypsum as well as Alabaster and Anhydrite are very colorful in the rock form. Carved objects of Alabaster have been found in excavated tombs of the Pharoahs and carved decorative columns of Alabaster have been found in excavations of ancient towns in this period of history. The softness of gypsum as well as a tendency to fracture may have made preservation of artifacts made from gypsum much more difficult. It is known that crude carvings of tale, soapstone, limestone and other soft minerals have been found in several historic time periods beginning with pre-historic man (16,000 BC). Since gypsum is also soft and carvable, it is somewhat logical to conclude that it was also carved by prehistoric man but did not survive the passage of time in a recognizable form. In addition to its softness and tendency to fracture, gypsum is also water soluble to some degree so this combination of properties would make long-term survival of the artifact difficult. Historians have long been trying to unravel the mysteries of the pyramids as to how they were constructed as well as the source of the building materials. An analysis of the Giza pyramids, which are dated to 26th century B.C., reveals that the mortar between the blocks probably contained 10-15% microcrystallines hemihydrate (plaster) as well as Alabaster aggregate. This would indicate that the Egyptians knew how to calcine gypsum. Plaster was in use in Greece and Italy about 500 B.C. for creating statues and other objects. There are some references from this period for making molds of objects and duplicating them by casting. Some Greek and Roman statues and ornamentation have survived from this and later periods but the durability of this early plaster was not good and there was probably more extensive use of plaster than has been verified thru recovered artifacts. The first written reference to gypsum was probably Plinys "Natural History" (3rd Century A.D.), which describe plaster molds by sculptor. In 1540 Vannuccio Beringuccio wrote in "Pirotechnia" about the manufacture and use of plaster for molds as well as sculpture. In 1545 Cavaliere Apriano Piccolpasso published "Three Books of the Potters Art" which refers to plaster mods and mold making as well as using them to form clay pieces. Casting has been practiced in one form or another by almost all of the ancient civilizations. Casts in clay or terra cotta have been preserved from early Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Aztecs. These materials were also used to create the original piece which is then duplicated many times. Although not verified with artifacts it is suspected that the caveman made clay casts of animal foot prints as well as his carvings. After ancient man mastered the use of fire beyond his fundamental needs he also learned to calcine gypsum that could be used for molds. Plaster manufacture was understood from the 3rd century A.D. or before nearly all civilized countries began using plaster for many purposes. Records show that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo made plaster casts as a method of study for their realistic renditions of human figures in paintings and sculpture. Both of them made many anatomic drawings which could have been made into plaster casts for study purposes. Benvenuto Cellini used plaster casts that were made to scale as part of his development of the final cast metal part. As he scaled up the piece he could make corrections of anatomic proportions as he developed the final life sized model. Cellini is also reported to have used a mixture of plaster, straw and brick dust as a mod material to cast his metal objects. The use of plaster as a mold material as well as part or all of the finished product is very old. By the time of the Renaissance, molds and models made from plaster were very common. However, piece mold for molding undercuts was apparently a fairly late development in time so many of the plaster molds would have been broken in order to remove the cast piece which was inside. These broken pieces would be difficult to identify as to their origin. |
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