Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1856-02-16
MISCELLANY.


MEssRs. EpIToRs--Somethiug moro thar
six months since il was made known through
your columns, that an invention was needed fol
saving tapering forms in marble. You accom-
panied that notice with editorial remarks in which
you prophesied that tie required machine woulc
be produced, and encouraged inventors to un.
deriake the work.
Your expectation has been met. Sixteen
patents have already been granted for machines
of the character proposed, and several Of these
are now doing satisfactory work. In a short
time number more will be added 10 the list
With so many earnest, practical minds direct
ed to a single point failure was impossible.
This competition, unparalleled in points Of success
has had, and must continue 10 have. the effect
greatly TO diminish the commercial value Of each
patent from the price it might have command
ed standing alone. As no one or two Of these
machines can enjoy anything like monopoly
the public confidence or of actual merit they
will at once be introduced into general use. -
What the patent right of machine Of exclu-
sive excellence would have been worth ma, be
Guessed" from the fact that several discn-
mating inventors, when they had satisfied them
selves of their success in the production of a
good machine, refused the $40, 900 offered, and
one of them sold the right of using a single ma
chine 10 one Of the largest marble manufactur-
ers in Vermont for $1,000. An ordinary gang
of saws is worth $1,000, but this invention. BY
doubling its efficacy, makaA it pay for itsslf the
first year. The absolute or aggregate value OF
this invention must be very imperiectly under
stood by those who are ignorant Of the present
extent of the marble business in this country al
the present rate of its development, and of It's
capacity for unlimited expansion. The bust.
ness is yet in its infancy, although it has in
creased more than hundred. fold in ten years.
have no hesitancy in saying that the entire
marble interest Of Vermont is now valued, by
its owners, at not less than Is ,00O, 900 Here
is found marble Of almost every hue, from the
ebony black TO snowy white, and yaring near
ly as widely in texture. Sudbury, Brandou
and Mddebury have siatuary marble equal 10
the best Italian, as the buss of our native sculp.
tor, Kinney, testify. Roxbury has an mex.
hausIibe supply of The true Yerd Antique, SO
identical in composition and appearance with
that hitherto obtained from ancient ruins thai
the best Judges have mistaken the one tor the
other. Although these quarres have been
opened but a couple of years, this beautiful stone
has already found lis way into the new capitol
extension at Washington, and into the parlors
OF the rich in New York and Paris. The com
mittee for the erection of the Benjamin Frank
lin monument in Boston, adopted il for that pnr-
pose after subjecting it to the severest test OF
heat, cold, and pressure. The "yermont I,al-
IAN" quarry of Dorset present bold front on
the side of the mountain, half mile long by
$50 feet high and OF bredh which ayes can
not exhaust. Rutland alone turned on, half q
million dollars worth year
And yet this marble formation which extends
the entire length of Vermont, runs also through
Berkshire County in Massachusetts,, through
western Connecticut, and, believe, into New
Jersey. And probably the marble int es:s a.
hove briefly alluded 10 are not moeiy ofihose
which exist in the country.
No sane person, with these facts before him
will say that an improvement which at once
does away with one-half of the expense of an
important branch of the business is not of great
value, and no reasonable persons will charge
mercenary motives upon those who were insiru-
mental IN the production Of these improvements
Some inventors. in theirtoo great aste, seizinp
upon the first idea that presented itself, instead
OF carefully and experimcnially feeling their
way to the truth, have made failures and now
hndlng themselves minus trihing sum of mon
ey Tor patent fees and model seem to forpel
that some waste of porperty and life always al
tends great victory,
There is yet ample room in the marble bus;.