Paving stone

“ Now, two of the most important things you will have to guard against is cutting through the rough stuff and lead coats, and scratching the surface. There is a great difference in pieces of pumice stone. Some are hard and full of flint like particles, which will scratch the work; others are softer and of more even grit; the light colored and fairly open grained pieces are the safest to use. You can tell a fast cutting stone by its open grain and lightness. The finer grades of German rubbing brick and English rubbing stone are also used in rubbing rough stuff. ”

“ The gentleman has compounded a cement or mortar, which, by the mere action of the air, assumes in a week or two the durability and consistence of the hardest marble and the firmest stone, and may be applied to all the purposes to which the strongest grained freestone is usually applied. Bridges, aqueducts, houses, and we suppose pavements and roads, can be as well constructed of this material as of the ordinary matters used in their composition. ”

“ Stone work, which may be rough and uncemented, but should always be solid, may then be built up at the sides, and covered with a secure coping of stone. A floor and sloping sides of stone work, jointed with the previously described work, and well cemented, or laid in strong clay or mortar, may, with benefit, be carried a few feet beyond the outlet. ”

“ Limestone, granite, and sandstone were used for building at a very remote period in much the same way as wood, large blocks, fresh from the quarry, of all manner of different shapes, being piled up horizontally or stood on edge, no cement being employed, though in certain cases crushed stone was used to fill up the spaces between the blocks. ”

“ A close-grained stone called lithographic stone (a kind of magnesian limestone) is ground perfectly even on the surface, and (if for being written upon) polished with pumice-stone, or (if for being drawn upon with chalk) grained with fine sand; the design is drawn with chalk or ink, each of which is made up of greasy materials—wax, soap, and asphaltum, colored with lamp-black. When the design is made, the stone is etched—washed over with a weak mixture of nitric acid and water—which answers three purposes ”

“ Several quarries of water lime, which is similar in appearance to common limestone, has been lately discovered in the United States, which, being finely pulverized and mixed with sand, makes very good water-cement.
10. In buildings constructed with marble and other costly stones, the walls are not composed of these materials in their entire thickness; but, for the sake of cheapness, they are formed on the inside with bricks, commonly of a poor quality, so that in reality they can be considered only brick walls faced with stone. ”

“ The stronger and more skillful workmen hewed great blocks of granite, which were dragged to the place on wooden sledges; and, as they had no cranes to lift the stones into their places on the walls, they were obliged to build mounds of sand and rough bricks, and roll up each stone gradually with wooden levers, until they got it into its proper place. ”

“ There are many varieties of stone conglomerates throughout the country which are valuable for foundation uses. Stone should be laid up in lime mortar in the direction of its natural bed in the quarry, with a sufficiency of bond stone. ”

“ Those who have seen the modern Arabs in excavation work move huge blocks with wooden levers and palm-leaf rope will realize that for the building of the dolmens little was needed except numbers and time.
The other method of moving the stones is as follows: a gentle slope of hard earth covered with wet clay is built with its higher extremity close beside the block to be moved. As many men as there is room for stand on each side of the block, and with levers resting on beams or stones as fulcra, raise the stone vertically as far as possible. ”

“ It seems strange that in a land where trees are so abundant and timber is to be had for the trouble of felling preference should be given to granite; yet the stone is easier and cheaper to work than timber, and on the hills and roadsides men and women are constantly quarrying the brittle substance. The way of working and the tools employed are very simple. Holes are chiselled at distances of about a foot; then iron or wooden wedges are driven in and the granite block is separated. ”

“ Many pavements thus laid with stones of considerable breadth still remain, but experience proved that it was a mistake to suppose that broad stones having a larger base would support better the weight and shocks of heavy traffic; on the contrary, a wide stone has a tendency to rock on its bed, and also to wear round on the top and become slippery. ”

“ LARGE PIPES: carved wood, stone (probably soapstone) , carvings to represent men and animals; 2 feet long. (Williams, pp. 72-3)
SMALLER PIPES: soapstone (made in imitation of the English style) , pewter, clay, brass, combinations of these—stone with brass bound bowl, clay stem with bowl of copper. (Williams, pp. 72-3; Willoughby, pp. 243-4, 240; Chapin, p. 17; Brereton, p. 38)
PESTLE: for grinding; stone; one example with top carved to represent an animal’s head. (Bushnell, p. 675; Willoughby, pp. 237-9)
STONE MORTAR: containing material during grinding (corn specifically mentioned) ”

“ The more uneven the outside is the more picturesque it will appear, but the smoother and more even the inside is the less will it collect soot and the less will be the danger of chimney fires. Lay your stones in mortar or cement. See that each stone fits firmly in the bed and does not rock and that it breaks joints with the other stone below it. By breaking joints I mean that the crack between the two stones on the upper tier should fit over the middle of the stone on the lower tier ”

“ The sand and stone will naturally vary slightly from time to time, but should not differ materially from the requirements of the specifications or the standards adopted by the engineer. Stone or gravel that contains any considerable quantity, say more than 5%, of foreign matter, such as soil or refuse, should be rejected. Stone containing an excessive quantity of fine fragments or screenings bunched together in the pile, should be mixed with the mass of larger stone before it is used, so as to produce a mass of fairly even composition. ”

“ The grinding-stones met with in Denmark and Scandinavia are gene- rally of compact sandstone or quartzite, and are usually of two forms—flat slabs, often worn hollow by use, and polygonal prisms smallest in the middle, these latter having frequently hollow facets in which gouges or the more convex-faced hatchets might be ground, and sometimes rounded ridges such as would grind the hollow part of gouges. ”

“ The Grindstones.—It is better to get a first-class stone, which may be small and rigged up with a foot treadle. A soft, fine-grained stone is most serviceable, and it should have a water tray, and never be used excepting with plenty of water. ”

“ For these reasons it is desirable from an economical point of view to " work " the stone to its desired shape and mould and carve it when soft and easily workable. By adopting this method a considerable saving in carriage will be effected, and the durability of the stone is enhanced, for the quarry sap on drying out leaves a hard outer crust or protective skin which would be removed if the working of the stone were left until it had become seasoned. ”

“ Not so; at least to any one who knows the look of a hard stone. You may, by rustication, make your good marble or granite look like wet slime, honeycombed by sand-eels, or like half-baked tufo covered with slow exudation of stalactite, or like rotten claystone coated with concretions of its own mud; but not like the stones of which the hard world is built. Do not think that nature rusticates her foundations. ”

“ Some lapidaries, after smoothing their stones on the sand lap employ an elm lap with powdered pumice-stone, and dispense with the pewter lap altogether, facing the stone on the felt lap with putty powder. This process is advantageous in polishing stones all over. But on carefully comparing the systems I am convinced that there is nothing like the pewter and rottenstone for general purposes; though the felt is advisable for round stones when they are to be polished over the whole surface. As you proceed you will be able to try experiments at your discretion. ”

“ Having thus formed the bed of the road, cleaned out the ditches and culverts, and adjusted the side drains, the stone, reduced to a size not exceeding four ounces in weight, must be spread on with shovels, and raked smooth. The old material should be used only when it is of sufficient hardness, and no clay or sand must be mixed with the stone. ”

“ The brick-earth is of great thickness, in places fully 50 feet, and overlies the Chalk. The upper portion of the beds is much contorted, and has in it occasional seams of flint gravel or tenacious clay, in which cream-coloured or brownish palæolithic implements occur. In the gravel, brown, ochreous, slightly abraded implements and flakes are found, and at the base in many cases is the old land-surface or "Palæolithic floor" resting on and surmounted by brick-earth. In one pit were three heaps of flints brought by hand in Palæolithic times from flint-bearing beds either above or in the Chalk. ”

“ They cut the stone into cubical blocks, and throw them into troughs, into which is poured a stream of running water. The blocks are kept in motion, and the grinding makes each block help the rest to grind off the eight corners and the twelve ridges of each one. The water becomes muddy with the fine particles, just as the drip from a grindstone becomes unclean when an axe is ground. Pretty soon all the blocks in the trough are changed into globes—the marbles that children buy at the shops when marble season comes around. ”

“ Then came the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when granite was in demand for gateposts, and every standing stone serviceable was ruthlessly carried away. Almost every circle of upright stones has lost some of its finest blocks in this way, and all that is left to show where they were is the hole cut in the "calm" from which they were extracted, and the spalls or chips made by the quarrymen as they knocked the block into shape. ”

“ The cutting and polishing of precious stones forms the business of the lapidary, an art materially differing from that of the diamond cutter.
The lapidary's apparatus [17] consists of a bench and several mills, adapted to the various operations he has to perform. They receive their motion from a wheel, which is turned with the left hand, by means of a crank. The mill used for cutting or rubbing down the stones, is a horizontal plate of soft lead [18] ; its surface is supplied with wet emery powder, which becomes indented in it by the pressure of the stone. ”

“ The best place, however, to true up a whetstone is upon the horizontal stone of a marble worker; this is a large grindstone, several feet in diameter, mounted on a vertical shaft, upon which are placed pieces of marble to be ground to a flat surface.
(D.) Artificial oilstones, made of emery, corundum, carborundum, and other artificial abrasives, are coming rapidly into use, and, as in the case of grindstones, eventually will supplant all others in many occupations, as they cut faster than any natural stone, may be made of any degree of fineness, and are of absolutely even texture. ”

“ Most faceted gemstones are cut to obtain the largest flawless stone possible from the rough material. Therefore, one of the first and most important steps for the lapidary is to decide how the stone is to be cut from the rough crystal or pebble. The colors that can be obtained from the gemstone must also be considered, and the cutting of the stone oriented so that its best color is displayed. The lapidary also selects the orientation of the stone in relation to the cleavage or cleavages. ”

“ García. Adobes, stones, clay, and mortar, with a casing of hewn stone and smooth stucco. Tylor. A conglomerate of common volcanic stones and mud mortar with the faces smoothed. Beaufoy. Masses of falling stone and masonry, red cement, 8 or 10 inches thick, of lime and pebbles. Bullock. 'It is true, that on many parts of the ascent masses of stone and other materials, strongly cemented together, announce the devices and workmanship of man; but on penetrating this exterior coating nothing further was perceptible than a natural structure of earth' like any natural hill with many loose stones. ”

“ While emery is used for polishing tools, polishing sand for stones and glass, ferric oxide for fine glassware, and lime and felt for metals, pumice stone is more frequently employed for polishing softer objects. Natural pumice stone presents but little firmness, and the search has therefore been made to replace the natural product with an artificial one. An artificial stone has been produced by means of sandstone and clay, designed to be used for a variety of purposes. ”

“ That manufactured objects of stone and iron have fallen from the sky:
That they have been brought down from a state of suspension, in a region of inertness to this earth's attraction, by atmospheric disturbances.
The "thunderstone" is usually "a beautifully polished, wedge-shaped piece of greenstone," says a writer in the Cornhill Magazine, 50-517. It isn't: it's likely to be of almost any kind of stone, but we call attention to the skill with which some of them have been made. ”

“ The stone makes a fine building material, [37] as it is easily worked, attractive in appearance and very durable. But unfortunately it is at first quite porous, and newly-erected houses are dangerously damp until the rains of two or three winters have, on their way through the walls, first dissolved a certain amount of the stone and then deposited it in the interstices. ”