Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1900 — New Artificial Stone. [ARTICLE]

New Artificial Stone.

A Scotch firm is manufacturing an artificial stone which is said to stand every test and to be impervious to all vagaries of the weather. The process is a simple one, and the ingredients of the stone, chiefly lime and sand, are not expensive commodities, so that it Is believed that the artificial product will be able to compete with the real. The lime and sand, having been thoroughly Incorporated, are passed Int® molding boxes, which may be of any convenient size or shape, and these are placed within the converter. Water at high pressure and having a high temperature is then pumped into the converter to.cause the necessary chemical union between the lime and sand, and the molding boxes are also submitted to a temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit by the action of superheated steam. In about thirty hours the surplus water Is run off, but the heat Is continued, in order to remove moisture from the molding boxes, for another fifteen hours. The boxes are then removed from the converter and the stone within them is practically ready for use. Experiments are now in progress from which It is hoped that other products of nature's laboratory, such as slate and marble, will presently be successfully imitated. New York Times,