| Show SUMMARY the Ther artificial stone invented a few years ago in england is said to be giving great satisfaction to archi architects and builders and promises soon to come into general use the various tests to which it has been subjected namely of various kinds by heat and frost and also by washing and arid attrition with fresh salt and impure water vater prove that very few natural stones are tire as durable or uniform the process of tho the manufacture of this useful concrete was described recently in london Engin engineering cetin cerin 9 which says that mr Ran somes patent concrete stone consists of sand united not by any mechanical sticking compound but by chemicals which transform it into a new and homogeneous mass it is particles of sand in some cases mixed with a little limestone bestone me stone united by silicate of lime the manner of forming this silicate of lime in the mass is in fact the essence of the invention the sand is mixed with a viscid solution of silicate of soda which produces tee a pasty a sty mass readily when the required forms are produced they are treated with a solution of chloride of calcium when the acid and the oxygen of the silicate of soda combine combino with the calcium of the chloride of calcium and form silicate of lime while the chlorine of tile the chloride of calcium unites with the L sodium and forms chloride of sodium common salt which is afterwards washed out but mr ransome had no sooner discovered how to provide for the chemical reactions than the commercial problem of cost of materials assumed very serious proportions isu of soda the chemical upon which the process hinges binges was indeed produced by two modes both of them however I 1 expensive and neither of the them M adequate fd equate in degree the solution was too weak to answer his purpose the scientific importance and the practical difficulty odthe of the improvement therefore lay just j as they did in the bessemer and other processes process aes not in making the desired material but in makin making a material with which to make it mr jr Ran somes great invention was the production of silicate of soda while powdered flintstone flint stone boiled in a solution of caustic soda at the atmospheric pressure for many hours would yield but a weak and inadequate fluid whole flints so boiled under a pressure of sixty pounds readily dissolved and formed a strong silicate of soda the great strength and durability of the artificial stone renders it it is said applicable to all purposes where the most solid ihas onry is required such as the building of railway bridges or other engineering enterprises while from bivin the case with which it can be and the facility with which the most elaborate ornamentation supplied it is considered specially available where great beauty of architectural design dein is desired in in n a country like utah where the quarrying and transportation of stone can only be done at an enormous expense this is a subject worthy the attention of architects and builders |
