Owing to the favourable reception accorded to my Concrete book of 1869, which has passed through a second edition, I have been induced to prepare the following work, treating more fully on the subject, and I trust more worthily of this important question. The subject of concrete and its varieties now receives much attention, more especially in consequence of the numerous novel adaptations of comparatively recent origin. In its more extensive application for important engineering works there has not been so much attention given to the accurate scientific rules according to which this material should be made. For minor purposes, however, and in what may be regarded as its domestic direction, great efforts are being made to keep pace with the most recent knowledge on the subject of concrete-making. Of the paving and pipe making industries, together with a variety of others of pro bably less importance, because not yet sufficiently established, I have in these pages given such information as will at all events lead to a further consideration of their peculiar features and advantages.