Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1895 — Artificial Marble. [ARTICLE]

Artificial Marble.

“Nine-tenths of tho marble topped tables and so on—what I might call furniture marble —seen in this country are made of artificial marble,” said a man in the trade. Thousands of tons of this mock marble are made annually, and even men in the trude can scarcely tell the difference between the real and the false article, for the markings, or marblings, go wholly through the block and are not merely superficial. The basis of the whole is a combination of limestone and chalk, which chemically treated, can be made of any shade desired. The artificial marble is placed in a water bath and upon this Is sprinkled a sort of varnish, consisting of sesquioxide of iron, gum and turpentine, and all manner of marbled designs are produced when the turpentine is broken up by the addition of water. Any pattern of marbling can be produced to order. Once such pattern appears the air is expelled from the block and the colors are fixed by the emmersion of the stone in sulphate and warm water baths and thSSn another bath of sulphate and zinc so closes up the pores and hardens the stone that it acquires the density of the natural article and can be cut and polished in the same manner.