A long time ago, there was a block....

Early History of Blocks

Concrete mortar was used by the Romans as early as 200 B.C. to bind shaped stones together in the construction of buildings. During the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula, in 37-41 A.D. , small blocks of precast concrete were used as a construction material in the region around present-day Naples, Italy. Much of the concrete technology developed by the Romans was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. It was not until 1824 that the English stonemason Joseph Aspdin developed portland cement, which became one of the key components of modern concrete.

In the United States, the first hollow concrete block was designed in 1890 by Harmon S. Palmer. After 10 years of experimenting, Palmer patented the design in 1900. Concrete blocks were first used in the United States as a substitute for stone or wood in the building of homes. The earliest known example of a house built in this country entirely of concrete block was in 1837 on Staten Island, New York. The homes built of concrete blocks showed a creative use of common inexpensive materials made to look like the more expensive and traditional wood-framed stone masonry building. This new type of construction became a popular form of house building in the early 1900s through the 1920s.

These early blocks were usually cast by hand, and the average output was about 10 blocks per person per hour. Today, concrete block manufacturing is a highly automated process that can produce up to 2,000 blocks per hour.