Cherry stone

“ Pol de Léon; but it is found principally on the west of the harbour of Brest, near a village from which it takes its name. Kersanton stone is of a dark-green colour, approaching to bronze, gives out a metallic sound when struck, and is easily worked in the quarry, in blocks of from twenty to forty feet cube, but hardens on exposure to the air. Time has no destructive effect on it; the most delicate, lightest, and most ornamental sculptures executed in it remain uninjured, while the hardest granites, erected at the same time, are friable and decomposed. ”

“ Other stones, such as ‘fired’ zircon, white sapphire, white topaz, and rock-crystal, may dazzle with brilliancy of light reflected from the surface or emitted from the interior, but none of them, like diamond, glow with mysterious gleams. No hint of colour, save perhaps a trace of the blue of steel, can be tolerated in stones of this category; above all is a touch of the jaundice hue of yellow abhorred. It taxes all the skill of the lapidary to assure that the disposition of the facets be such as to reveal the full splendour of the stone. ”

“ Barring quartz rock, which does not look well, almost any kind of natural stone may be made use of to the best [Pg 16] advantage. Artificial stone should be shunned like the plague. Limestone and sandstone are good materials; granite is better. Granite, however, does not stratify, and if stratified effects are desired, another stone must be selected. A good plan is to use more than one kind, but to keep them properly apart. Weather-beaten granite is excellent material, and, in general, it is well to have the rock look anything but newly quarried. ”

“ The glazed or polished surface of the quartz rocks at the Pipe Stone Quarry, I consider a very interesting subject, and one which will excite hereafter a variety of theories, as to the manner in which it has been produced, and the causes which have led to such singular results. The quartz is of a close grain, and exceedingly hard, eliciting the most brilliant spark from steel; and in most places, where exposed to the sun and the air, has a high polish on its surface, entirely beyond any results which could have been produced by diluvial action, being perfectly glazed as if by ignition. ”

“ Even in the case of cave-deposits we have seen how, in those of Creswell Crags, a locality which lies within the presumed nonimplementiferous district, all the larger implements were made from quartzite, some of the tools being so rude that human workmanship can hardly be recognized upon them. I therefore venture to think that if competent observers like Mr. Landon will devote their attention to the ancient gravel-like alluvial deposits of our northern rivers, and seek for implements not formed of flint but of quartzite or some other of the older rocks, their search will be rewarded. ”

“ Francis, whose "springs gush out among these stupendous piles of red granite." Besides the ores of iron, lead and zinc, "quartz, feldspar, shorl, mica, and graphite are among the minerals furnished by that region," and "green stone, gneiss, and green stone porphyry, are among the larger masses of rock." The green stone, it seems, "is found in large isolated fragments, lying promiscuously among the fragments of granite which have tumbled down from the lofty cliffs above, and is rendered porphyritic by crystals of green and flesh-colored feldspar." ”

“ Sandstones, which are stratified rocks consisting mainly of rounded quartz grains cemented together, are widely used in building operations. Like limestones, they are very widespread in formations of all ages except the very old. There are many sandstone quarries supplying more or less local markets throughout the country. Two of the best known and most widely used sandstones are the so-called brown-stone of Triassic Age extending interruptedly from the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts to North Carolina, and the Berea, Ohio, sandstone of light gray color and uniform texture. ”

“ The stone dug from it, appears, from its external characters, to consist of quartz and cherts. When first taken out of the soil, it is much softer, and more easily wrought into its proper shape, than after it has been exposed to the air, though only for a day. The vein in the quarry contains every variety of the stone, whether cellular, close, hard, or soft, and runs to such a depth, that the industrious discoverer considered it as inexhaustible. ”

“ In the massive granites these joints, which usually occur in two or more planes at right angles to one another, are of the greatest importance to the quarry man, as they enable him to separate masses of stone with approximately parallel faces. In gneisses the parallel arrangement of the minerals usually coincides with a direction of easy cleavage, known to quarrymen as the “ rift ”; at right angles to this direction is usually one less easy parting, known as the ” grain.” Sandstones and limestones are stratified rocks which have been formed as sediments in bodies of water ”

“ Stone from the quarry is popularly thought to be a durable building material, but only the most compact and resistant varieties, and these in a favorable climate, can make any approach to permanence. Granites are regarded as indestructible, but the title of granite to serve as the standard and symbol of strength is clouded when we remember that many beds of soft clay owe their accumulation to the decay of one of the chief mineral constituents of this rock, a decay in which the atmosphere has been a powerful agent. ”

“ Sometimes the fine black glimmer abounds more than the remaining constituent parts; and these two last kinds of stone generally run in alternate stripes. The white lime-stone which consists of almost invisible particles, is mixed in among them. The garnet-coloured quartz grains appear here and there, and sometimes form whole stripes. They are as big as pin’s heads, round, shining, and strike fire with steel. All these stones are very hard, and the mountains near the sea, consist entirely of them. They sometimes ly in almost perpendicular strata, of ten or fifteen inches thickness. ”

“ They are always perpendicular in the strata of calcinable matters, as chalk, marle, marble, &c. but are more oblique and irregularly placed in vitrifiable substances, brown freestone, and rocks of flint, where they are frequently adorned with [49] chrystals, and other minerals. In quarries of marble or calcinable stone, the divisions are filled with spar, gypsum, gravel, and an earthy sand, which contains a great quantity of chalk. ”

“ Most of the quartz, except the white, yields a small portion of lime, and has been called calcareous quartz. Greasy quartz, rose quartz, hornstone, and rock crystal, are occasionally found; the last in considerable quantity south of Stone Hill. On the stream which issues from the Hopper, is arenaceous quartz of a slaty structure, which is an excellent stone for sharpening the chisels used by stonecutters.
4. Granular Limestone is abundant at the Cave or Falls, in Adams, and on both sides of the Hoosack. The Cave or Falls, (O) is a singular chasm between limestone rocks. ”

“ In matching the wood get the ground-work as near the lightest color on the wood as possible, and you cannot go astray. For satin-wood the ground-work is similar to maple, but deeper in color. For burl ash use the same color as for ash, or slightly deeper.
The ground-work for cherry is probably mixed differently by every painter—at least, that is my experience—and it is hard work to make any workman believe that his is not the right way. In different parts of the country the popular idea of what "cherry color" is, varies greatly. ”

“ Of other non-metallic mineral substances, apart from coal, petroleum and natural gas, little need be said in detail. Stone is of the greatest actual importance, the value of the quarry output, including some prepared or manufactured product, such as dressed and crushed stone, averaging $65,152,312 annually in 1904-1908. Limestone is by far the largest element, and with granite makes up two-thirds of the total value. Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York are the leading producers. ”

“ In this quarry, then, and in the heaps around it, hundreds are earnestly busy in laying bare what is beneath; while scores of men, women, and children are silently and earnestly looking on. One has just brought out a ball of stone, or something like stone, about the size of a man's hand, known among the quarrymen as 'a fairy ball;' it is composed of a hard crust, like rusted iron, which, on being broken, is found to contain a yellow shining metal of various shapes and sizes—grains, octohedrons, cubes, and their allied forms, as is the case with gold ”

“ The surface soil being of a light, peaty quality, the stones, from their greater gravity, lie beneath, mixed with a rounded quartz gravel, which in ages past must have been subjected to the action of running water. This quartz gravel, with its mixture of gems, rests upon a stiff white pipe-clay.
In this stratum of gravel an infinite number of small, and for the most part worthless, specimens of gems are found, consisting of sapphire, ruby, emerald, jacinth, tourmaline, chrysoberyl, zircon, cat's-eye, "moonstone," and "star-stone." Occasionally a stone of value rewards the patient digger ”

“ Besides the crystalline quartz rock we find close-grained and at least partly non-crystalline varieties, such as hornstone and flint. Sandstones most commonly consist of grains of quartz cemented by some other mineral, or by silica itself; in the latter case the siliceous sandstone frequently passes insensibly into true quartzite. The loose sand so well known to common life is prevalently composed of quartz grains, whose hardness and resistance to weathering enables them to survive longest the soil-forming agencies. ”

“ Some quartz on exposure to the air crumbles into sand, though hard when first taken from the vein. In narrow lodes, some of the wall-rock must be cut away to get room for the workmen. In wide lodes, that part of the vein-stone which does not pay is left. Sometimes the gold from the lode penetrates a little way into the foot-wall, and in that case the quarrying must extend beyond the vein stone. The quartz loosened in the vein, must either be hoisted perpendicularly in a bucket with a windlass, or be hauled out through a tunnel. The common method is to hoist the rock with a windlass. ”

“ QUARTZITE, in petrology, a sandstone which by the deposit of crystalline quartz between its grains has been compacted into a solid quartz rock. As distinguished from sandstones, quartzites are free from pores and have a smooth fracture, since when struck with the hammer they break through the sand grains, while in sandstones the fracture passes through the cementing material and the rounded faces of the grains are exposed, giving the broken surface a rough or granular appearance. The conversion of sandstone into quartzite is sometimes the work of percolating water under ordinary conditions. ”

“ Well-made gouges, of the same minerals as those in the “celts,” also occur in many localities.
Pipes of sandstone, limestone, and quartzite. Usually these exhibit good workmanship. Examples from Ontario are not wanting in which the bowl alone consists of stone, each having a horizontal opening for the insertion of a bone or wooden stem. Some have a perforation at the bottom bored diagonally, probably for the suspension of an ornament. Occasionally one is found having stem and bowl in one piece, and these are chiefly made from a comparatively hard variety of steatite or soapstone. ”

“ Chert nodules and beds, of white, black, yellow, or red colour, lie in the limestone, like lumps and layers of flint in chalk; and require similar suppositions to explain their occurrence. Some considerable beds of chert occur in the north of England (Swaledale) , and many sandstones are of a cherty nature (Harrogate) .
Ironstone (a carbonate of iron) often accompanies the thick dark plates and shales, in rows or layers of nodules (see Diag. No. 21, p. 61.) , aggregated round shells (unio) , fern branches, &c. Coal lies always in beds. ”

“ It has been formed by striking off flakes, and the skill and precision with which this has been done cannot be properly represented by any drawing. It is a beautiful implement, with a highly-polished and very sharp cutting edge. The gum used in fixing the handle still adheres to it, and the stone is not in the least decomposed in any part. The material is a dense dark-green quartzite, resembling hornstone. It is seven inches in length, three inches and a quarter in breadth, and the greatest thickness is one inch and a half. It weighs one pound nine ounces and three-quarters. ”

“ Some quartzites are almost pure quartz, but others contain impurities of clay, lime or iron, which were in the original sandstone. These alter in the metamorphism to such accessory minerals as feldspar, mica, cyanite, magnetite, hematite, calcite, graphite, etc. The color of quartzite when pure is white, but may be altered to red, yellow, or green by the presence of these accessory minerals.
On account of the difficulty of working the quartzites, they are not much used in building, though they are very durable. When crushed they often make excellent road ballast, or filling for concrete work. ”