The constant consideration, punctuated by periods of almost frantic concentration of effort and by periods of dull lassitude, given to chemically bonding soil particles into structural materials has yielded some useful products, some laboratory curiosities, and some ideas as to how current and future efforts may be more meaningfully evaluated. Current work indicates that attempts to evaluate chemicals for bonding clay soils are significantly clouded by: (1) lack of knowledge of the soil-chemical bond; (2) lack of knowledge of the type of soil surface susceptible to bonding; (3) lack of knowledge of the inhibitors to chemical reactions present in soil systems; (4) lack of a correlation of the differences in response to treatment between readily indentifiable clays and soil fractions apparently composed of these clays; and (5) lack of satisfactory laboratory techniques by which rapidly reacting chemicals can be properly incorporated with soils.

A program is proposed whereby standards of response to treatment are established for different categories of known bonding agents when used with fractionated silica, kaolin and kaolinitic soils, montmorillonite and montmorillonitic soils. A device suitable for laboratory use in this program is suggested.