W. S. Ward

“ Entering a narrow valley bordered by mountain-walls, he will find himself gazing in wonderment at the rounded stone columns, rising about him in groups or singly, to a height ranging from ten to forty feet, and in many instances surmounted with grotesque cap-like coverings, that rest balanced upon the frail pinnacles of the rock-columns. ”

“ In addition to the advantage gained by this new impulse, it will also be seen that the blast serves another purpose in blowing away the sand, so soon as its work is done, and thus leaving the surface below clean and in a condition to be the more readily acted upon by the succeeding blasts. The purpose of the wagon is merely to admit of the tube being moved forward and backward along the line of the plate to be engraved, the lateral movement of the plate being effected by a suitable device not here shown. ”

“ The contractor having this work in charge at Rutland, Vermont, has three sand-blast machines, of the form indicated in Fig. 8.
In addition to the one man employed to tend these machines, he has a small force of boys, whose duty it is to attach and remove the cast-iron letters which act as stencils. Thus equipped, the contractor is able to turn out three hundred head-stones a day, upon each of which is a handsomely-cut inscription averaging eighteen raised letters. It is estimated that, to accomplish a like result by the old process, a force of three hundred men would be needed. ”

“ With the legal history of the sand-blast, however, we have nothing to do, save as it concerns the general history of the invention and its progress. In order that the methods by which a simple falling column or stream of sand is made to do service as an engraver of glass and metal plates may be understood, attention is directed to Fig. 2, which may be described as follows:
A is a box, elevated as high above the engraver's table as the height of the ceiling will permit. ”

“ A slide, B, serves to regulate or check the flow of the sand. Thus much for the simplest form of sand-blast. A word as to the manner of its operation; and here, again, reference must be made to the original "claim," where it will be found that the operation of the blast is limited to the cutting, grinding, etc., of any hard substance. It may be well to note the significance of this word hard since in it lies the secret of the whole process. The substance upon which the sand acts must be a hard or brittle
Fig. ”

“ When it is desired to merely roughen the whole surface, it is evident that no preliminary processes are needed, the plates of glass being fed in at the opening indicated on the right, and passing through to be received and delivered at once as ground glass. ”

“ If the reader will, by the aid of the illustration, observe closely the construction of this simple device, he will be able to comprehend, once for all, not only the novelty of the invention, but also its extreme simplicity. ”