The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-03-26
From the Scientific American.
Marble, and Marble Saving In
uapfiOn

vention.
MEssEs. EDirogs :--Something more
than six months since il was made known.
through your columns, that an invention
was needed for saving taporing forms in
marble. You accompanied that notice
with editorial remarks, in which you
prophccicd that the required machine
would be produced, and encouraged in.
vcntors to undertake the work.
Your expectations have been met
Sixteen patents have already been grant
ed for machines of the character pro.
| posed, and several of these are now do
ing satisfactory work. in short time
number more will be added to the list.
With so many earnest, practical minds
! directed to single point failure was
impossible. This competition, unparal-
loled in point Of success, has had, aud
must continue to have, the effect great
| ~ to diminish the commercial valu. of
each patent from the price it mi ght have
COMMANDED alone. As no one or two Of
these machines can enjoy anything like
monopoly of the public confidence or
Of actual merit, they will at once be in
troduccd into general use. What tho
patent right of machine Of exclusive
excellence would have been worth may
bo guessed from the fact that several
discriminating inventors, when they had
satisfied themselves in the production of
good machine, refused the $4,000
offered and one of them sold the right
Of using Il single machine to one of the
largest marble manufacturers in Yer
mont for $1,000 An ordinary gang of
saws is worth $1,000 per annum, but
this Invention, by doubling its'clliciency,
makes it pay for itself the first year
The aggregate value of this invention
must be very imperfcctly understood by
thoseewho are ignorant of the present
extent Of tue marble business in this
country, Of the present rate Of its de.
yc!opment. and Of its capacity for uu-
limited expansion. The business is yet
in its infancy. although it has increased
more than a 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 1000 600 Here is found mar
Die of almost every hue, from The ebony
black to the snowy white. and varying
nearly as widely in texture Sudbury,
Braudon, and Middlcbury have statuary
marble equal to the best Italian. as the
busts OF cur native sculptor, Kinney,
testify. RoXbury has an incxlaustiblo
supply Of the true Icrdc A,hiquc, so
identical in composition and appearance
with that hitherto obtained from ancient
ruins, that the best judges have mistaken
the one for the other. Although these
quarries have been opened bat couple
Of years, this beautiful stone has already
found It's way into the new capitol at
Washington, aud into the parlors Of the
rich in New York and Paris The com.
mittce for the erection of the Benjamin
franklin monument in Boston, adopted
it for that purpose after subjecting it to
the seyercst tests of heat, cold, aud pres
sure. The vermont Italian" quarry Of
Dorset presents bold front on the side
Of the mountain, half nile long by one
hundred and fifty feet high, and Of
breadth which cannot exhaust. Rutland
alone turns cut ha!fmilliOn dollars worth
year.
And yet this formation which extends
the entire length Of Vermont runs also
through Berkshire County in Massachu-
setts, through western Connecticut, and,
| believe, into New Jersey. And prob
ably the marble interests above alluded
to are not a moiety Of those which cx-
lists in the country.
40 sane person, with these facts b.
fore him, will say that al Improvement
which at once docs away with one half
Of the expense Of an important branch
Of the business is not of great value,aud
no reasonable person will charge mercen.
AIRY motives upon those who were iustru-
mental in the production Of these i'm
provcmeuts Some inventors, who in
their too great haste, seized upon the
Irst idea that presented itself, Instead of
carefully and expermentally feeling their
way to the truth, have made failures
ard now finding themselves minus a trif-
ling SUN Of money for patent fees and
models, seem to forget that some waste
of property and life always attends a
great victory.
There is yet ample room in the mar.
bic business for the exercise of tho in.
yentitive faculty; some important i'm
provements are yet needed
NJ NJ MANLY.
South Dorset, W., Jau, 1886