Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1869 — Elastic Stone-Roofing. [ARTICLE]

Elastic Stone-Roofing.

the CblesgoTribune. We are always dteaeed to call the attention of (he public to anytatng of real merit, tad oar reporter baring had occasion yesterday to call at ■be office of the Chicago Elastic Stone-Rooting Company, waa an maca pleaaed with their arrangements that ha could not refrain from giving a short account to the Tribune readers. This company waa organised abont a mar ago. and have put up a commodious manufactory, 10 by TOJeet, iwo stories and basement, fltted with steam power and machinery ample for their wants, and located on the Chicago, Burlington A Quincy Railroad, between Related street and Newberry avenue. They have established local agenU In nearly SOO of the largest towns In the West, from Buffalo, N. V., to Omaha, Nebraska, whom they have another factory and branch, and are having numerous orders for material from all dlrectlone dally, a* a glance at their shipping book will show. Their roofing la composed of coal tar thickened by the addition of kaolin, or fine-ground porcelain clay, that It may not ran from the extreme of eammer heat, and also rendering the material flre-proof: to this they add a preparation of dissolved India rubber and glycerine, and the whole Is thoroughly mixed by machinery. The principle of the roof Is, that upon applying tha material hot to the surface of the (siting, the rnbber not being combined bat simply admixed, rises to ihd surface, forming a dim or envelope over the surface, protecting It from the action es the atmosphere. The glycerine, which will not evaporate, keeps It always eliatlc, so that It will not crack from cold. (Jpon expressing some doubt as to the flre-proof Dropertles of a composition composed of saeh Inflammable materials, the Secretary, Mr. C. F. Hlnman, proposed to demonstrate tha point. Taking a large sample board nearly five feet square, Mr. Htnman made a Are covering a space two feet In diameter, which burned furlonaly for fifteen mlnutea, when the horning brands were thrown off snd a wedge-shaped piece cat from the centre to the outside of the burned portion, and upon taming it hack the boards were found barely warmed and neither coarse of felting broken, and the second coarse unharmed. Messrs. Campbell and Whitman, lnsnrance agents, who were present, suggested building a large fire on the gronnd. and placing the rool above, which waa done, and the fire fed with wood and ooal tar, to make as great heat, a possl ble. After burning nearly twenty minutes, daring which time the sample was so completely enveloped in fiames at tlmea that It could not be seen the boards ware burned through, yet the rodflng failed to give way. A (aw minutes later the felt ing was broken through with a stick te allow the fiames to pass through, and even then the fire confined Itself to the boards and would not spread over the root. After homing twenty-five minutes the test waa concluded satisfactorily. Nearly three-quarters of an hoar on both sides of a sample, snd the roof yet nndestroyed We append .the following certificate from Campbell, Whitman St Wallace, lnsnrance agents: T> Whom U may Concern t _ Cwtoa&o, April 14.1859. Ws witnessed a test of the fire-proof qualities of the Chicago Elastic Stone-Ko'.flngCompany at their w irks this afternoon, and conear in the deaerlptlon above gt-en. The tatwaa the moat severe, and Its sucres, the most complete, i t anything of the kind we have ever witnessed, aa the Are will not spread ii pon the •nrihce, nor the material i on through, (hading the flames. If rorn below. Tea roofing has oar nnqn» lfl»d approval, and in Insuring a building would consider it ast-fer risk. If covered wlto the elastic stone-roofing, than any other roofing material In oar knowledge. Campbell, Vgmui A Wallace,