The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-11-27
ARTIFICIAL STONE.
A New Manufacture at Ottawa.

known as the FlShbcrn lot near the Main street
swing bridge across the sde.cut, with view OF
commencing there the manufacture, on large
scale, of ARTIFICIAL stone, word or two on the
subject VIII naturally interest our readers.
The process Mr.. AttiX proposes TO use is oil
course patented, and combines two former pat
ents-thc Frear patent and the Hall ~ Salisbury
patent, the latter known as the Phoenix stone.
The manufacture and use Of artificial stone Is
comparatively new in this country, and especial
ly IN Illinois; yet the Frear stone upon which
the Phoenix is n vast Improvement has been III
limited use IN this state for the last eight or ten
wears and has thus far not only borne tle test OF
heat, frost and moisture equal TO the best natur-
al stone but in the crucial test Of the great Chi
cago fire, as John b. Farwcll testifies, "came out
of the Gre entirely uninjured, while all other
stones proved worthless" It's merits, under that
test having been thus peculiarly emphasized, the
stone SO rapidly gained public confidence that in
fins state alone it is now manufactured at fifteen
or twenty different points. There is one very
larma establishment fer its manufacture near
HYDE Park, in Chicago; and there are manufac-
tories at Champaign, Decatur, Pekin, Galesburg,
&c Indeed few important structures in the In
terror of Illinois, public or private, are now
erected without the use partly or entrely-so
far as stone is needed-of artificial stone
made by the improved Phoenix process. In Chi
cago also, since the great fire, it has come large
Nv into use over a hundred business as well as
private edifccs being built of this stone, includ
ing the large StaatzetiAg printing establishment
of Mr.. Hesng, John b. Farwell's dry goods pal
ace as well as his private dwelling, and SO on The
stone is also largely used in building sidewalks,
making these beautiful tessellated pavements
becoming SO common in the southern part of the
city, and which, while believed to be as durable
AS marble, cost no more than brick or plank
sidewalk.
The ingredients used in the manufacture of
the stone are mainly sand and hydraulic cement,
and the peculiar advantage of Ottawa as place
for its manufacture consists in the fact that the
whole city and its surroundings are underlaid
with unlimited quantities of the best sand in the
country for the purpose while we are CONVEX
lent to the great Utica Cement Mills, and have
abundant cheap transportation for the convey
ance OF the stone to Ill points of the compass.
We kave said that the manufacture and use OF
artificial stone in this country Is comparatively
recent, but that is true only with some cXcep-
ton, wilhelm europe and the East stone made
substantially by what is now known as the
Frear-r hpnix process has been III u.s. fol- many
years, running back, in Asi" Minor and Egypt,
it is believed into thousands Of years ago. In
Paris many Of the most imposing structures dur
ing the past century have been built OF artificial
stone made chiefly of sand and a cement made
at Tell in Ardcchr, and in England vast quaint
ties OF IA like stone have been made by the use
of sand and the well-known Portland cement,
with, Of course, certain chemicals. NJ. Lesseps,
the great French engineer, in building the Suez
Canal found it necessary, at Port Said, where
the canal enters the Mediterranean, to construct
Immense storm jetties, one 5000 and the other
2,5l5 yards long, and they were built entirely Of
artificial stone, the cement being brought from
Ardeehe, in France, and the sand used being that
OF the seashore. These jettes are solid walls
from three to six feet in thickness and ranging
from 26 to 60 feet in height Most OF the stones
are solid in blocks weighing SO tons. No other
stone ever discovered, it is said, has been found
to resist the action Of salt water and the waves
equal to this.
And the success OF NJ Lesseps in the manu-
which has caused considerable speculation
among antiquaries. In viewing the remains of
ancient Egyptian architecture--its temples and
obelisks, in which stone are often used of such
vast proportions and elevated to such impossi'
bic heights, the conundrum has puzzled the
learned for centuries, by what sort of machin
cry, BY what unknown and inconceivable engi
neering skill, were these stones so transportes
from away up the Nile and then placed where
now found? Pompeys Pillar, for instance, rests
on a base % feet in height; and upon that stands
a shaft ten feet in diameter and fifty feet IN
height-all one solid piece, without break or
Joint; and surmountng this is another stone
TWENTY-FIVE feet in height, with fiat top, upon
which Stood or meant to stand, colossal
statue. How were these immense stones ele-
waited to their place? The solution suggested
by the operations of NJ. Lcsseps is simple enough
the stones were built there-taken up on seat
folding, bucket full by bucket full and hamper
by hamper full The only unsolved puzzle thai
remains lelng, how did the stone, thus ar
tifcially made, receive its hugh polish--a polish
which to this day enables a man standing forty
feet from that remarkable monolith, to see his
own reflection from its surface. After all, with
this exception, what is Pompey's Pillar compar
ed to the Light House which NJ. Lesseps con
structed at Port Said? That is also built Of
stone, without break or joint, that would weigh
hundreds Of tons, with base forty feet in di
ameter, and is 1856 feet in height, or s.
feet higher than Pompey's Pillar, or any Other
of the forty famous Egyptian obelisks.
But we are DEPRESSING The point we are
driving att of course is that this artificial stone
being as durable as any natural stone ever dis
covered, is in the way of the erection and orna
mentation of firstclass buildings, as well as in
1.-The building of sidewalks, garden walls, &c. tc
be preferred to any other because it is capable OF
Infinite enumeration with the case Of pottery
. and at fourth the expense Of common Jolie
lime stone or Batavia sandstone.
Subscriptions received for all the principal
Init oil a