Type of adhesive cement and certain improved products made possible thereby

An intimate mixture of finely-divided, dry zinc oxide and a dry, solid, weak, powdered, unpolymerized polycarboxylic acid which acid is such as to rapidly wet and largely dissolve in water, said mixture being maintained dry and unreacted until use;

• its dry particles being bonded together by a dry, water-insoluble agent in the amount of the order of about 1-2% by anhydrous weight of the mix which bonding agent does not materially interfere with rapid wetting of said mixture when contacted with water and, when wetted, rapidly becomes adhesive and quickly sets to a strong, hard cement;
• the proportions of said oxide and said acid in said mixture being from 10 to 400 percent of their chemical equivalence, said cement being relatively resistant to distintegration in water when the proportion of said oxide is such as to be at least chemically equivalent to the acid in said mixture.