| Show FACTS ABOUT THE TEMPLE The Master Bandar Gives Some Now Item on the Great btrnctmc The recent publication ot THE s ttl articles on the near completion of th the e temple has aroused a groat deal of st and brought to light some facts concernin the history of tho building which might otherwIse have remained undIscovered The following letter contains some new facts and makes some corrections of thos which have been generally accepted The Salt Lake temple foundation is not laid granite from Cottonwood canon as has b cn stated but is of the same kind of sandstone a the temple block wall foundationwe call It fi irestone and has never been disturbed or taken up and relaid as has been stated but tho nsauslactory work resulting from the iin roperlyprepared material laid immedlatelyove the foundation proper was taken and cons uently what work laid above it and relaid a scs I will more particularly explain further on Th Im stone was ground and hauled by ox teams from a spur in the mountain a little south of the mouth of Red Butte canon in blocks from li Inches In-ches to feet thIck and froml1 toM feet wand ids w-and from 3 to 5 feet long or thereabouts The I foundations of the main walls are 16 feet thick at the base and taper equally on each hide to the top or point I where this kind of material discontinues and the granite commences which is sixteen feet as nearly as I remember from the base orstarting joint It is laid in regular courses according I to the thickness of the blocks as c mpactly good j lime and mortar as unhewn stone can be laid with the points of each course properly broken by the next succeeding course and no doubt bases the superstructure as equally as if It were one solid rock When the top of this foundation was reached the master builder was called upon by the architects to put onto it a course of refuse rock of various shapes and sizes and use very liberally of a certain qual ity of lime mortar which he claimed would in a very short time become as hard as the rock itself consequen consequently like a s lid body of cement with which the master builder did not agree as i was anew a-new and entirely untried process in his experience experi-ence or observations However it was done and a course of sandstone > tone nagging bedded on top of it and the perpendicular walls eight feet thick of granite from the Cottonwood started and in some portions carried nearly to the sur face of the ground at which stage it waS lis continued and covered with earth entirely from view At this time the master builder prepared seen specimens of lime mortar of from one to seven parts sand with a view to proving its quality by age or time to fully harden or cement and dug a small trench near the east gate to the temple block pIa ed a trowel of each of these specimens of mortar between a couple of granite spats and placed them in this trench numbering each of them and covered with a board and earth about two feet or more deep During the four year the temple walls remained in the abore named condition ihe architect expresed himself to the master builder in the presence of President Young that wh n those specimens of mortar which inghe had cached were taken up we would find them a solid hard cement The master builders reply was he did not think so and emphasized his opinion by holding up his thumb and index finger in the attitude of crumbling svmet kin between them and kinwe sayin No I believe i we shall Und that mortar in such state that wo may crumble it like that President Young seemed to take special notice of the remark and several times after that and prior to the expiration ot I the time for uncovering said to the master builder I think we shall have to take up that work down to the foundation and each time expressed himself more determinedly and when the time came he had it done and instead I thereof he had a double course of heavy flag ging placed immediately over the foundation proper on which was commenced the present structure and many thousands of dollars were spent on the material before placing it in the walls which was not allowed of before on the original work above the foundation Respect fully etc THE MASJTltBUIIDER |
