2. The history of lime

The uses to which lime was put long predated rational knowledge of the mechanisms involved in its manufacture and setting. Until the 19th century, empirical knowledge guided the practices of lime workers, masons and architects. The uses of this material, which enabled major architectural, artistic and domestic achievements, overlapped with what scientific analysis later named decarbonation, air setting, pozzolanic reaction and hydraulic setting.

In this historical section, we propose to follow the ups and downs of the use of lime in construction, which will find their explanation and conclusion in the research carried out by chemists and engineers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, research that will pave the way for the rational and industrial exploitation of the properties of carbonate rocks.