Morning journal and courier., 1882-03-01
Lectures to Mechanics.

rom IrlnlGy cnufcn. It IS QeS1raDle lOca- ton.
 Lectures to Mechanics.
 Harrison w. Lindsiey the Building Stones of COnnecticut-An Instructive Lecture.
 The fourth lecture of the course to me- chanics was given by Harrison w. Lindsley, ] the architect, on the Building Stones of Con necticut, in the North Sheffield Hall last evening The speaker treated the subject in such manner as to answer the questions of ! those who for practical business reasons de- ] sire to know something of the physical qualities of the various kinds of stone found ] in our State The various rock formations of Connecticut were pointed out on.a map l made expressly for the purpose. ''Generally
 speaking said the lecturer, ''all the stonesgin
 the State which are used for engineering, paving and building purposes may be classed 1 into five kinds: Gneiss, granite, sandstone, marble or limestone and trap rocks. Of the l gneiss rocks, the mica schist quarried at Bol- 1 ton stands lowest in the scale. This rock 1 splits easily and is as easily quarried. It 1 was once used for paving and curbing, but has fallen into disuse on account of its soft ness. The mica schist found at Roxbury is 1 somewhat harder and contains less mica but ! does not admit of a polish. The stone of I this class found at Ansonia is regular gneiss, can be polished on surfaces which are at 8 considerable angle to the principal cleavage pane and is suitable for ordinary building 1 purposes. The Howard avenue church is built of this material. The gneiss quarried at West Norfolk and Thomaston is still bet ter and the latter quarry has been extensively worked. All these stones are of light color. The gneiss found at Haddam and Middle town is of a much darker shade and as l rule much coarser grained. Gneiss is also found at Willimantic Sterling, Greenwich and Holland
 ''The granite quarries come next in order They are nearly all situated on the shore of Long Island Sound and east of this city. Both the red and gray granite are found, the latter being by far the most abundant. The only red granite quarry worked at present is at Old Lyme. It is the most highly colored and ornamental stone in the State, is capable of the most perfect polish and in beauty and variety of tint compares favorably with the best Scotch granite. Its only defect is it's brittleness. The quarry of this rock s.t Stony Creek, known as the Redpath quarry, has not been worked for several years. Gray granite is found at Stony Creek, Leete's Island aud East Lyme. All are of pinkish gray
 color, rather grained, and have the striped appearance of gneiss. This stone is not well suited to highly ornamental work, but it is excellent for ordinary building pur-
 poses. The granite quarried at Millstone Point is much finer grained and it's surface when polished shows series of spots darker than the surrounding stone. The Groton granite is mostly used for cemetery monu- ments and admits high polish. The granite quarried at Branford, Double Beach and Mason's Island, used for building | breakwaters, is so iron-stained ,and uneven in 1 texture and color as to be unfit for nicer ! uses. The sandstone quarries are situated in | 8 narrow strip of territory running north l from the vicinity of New Haven across the | State into Massachusetts. Railroad bridges l and abutments are made of it. There are no 1 materials better adapted for walls of dwell ] ings than East Haven sandstone and North Haven brick. It is difficult to understand why our citizens sent to Philadelphia for their bricks and to Ohio for their sandstone, when such materials lie almost at their doors. There are quarries of sandstone also at Meri- den, Newington, Cromwell and East Windsor. The Portland sandstone is the material which composes the monotonous brown stone fronts of New York city. It is liable l to flake, is very expensive, and it's color, though very uniform, is not so attractive as the East Haven or Manchester sandstone. ''The limestone section lies entirely in the northwest corner of the State There are
 but few quarries, and none of them are be- ing worked for building stone at the present time. The quarry at East Canaan furnished the stone for the new Capitol at Hartford,
 and has been idle ever since. The stone found at Falls Village is of much the same
 character. All the trap dykes which are quarried lie in the sandstone strip of terri tory. This rock is used for Telford and Belgium pavements, and for cellar walls. The walls of Trinity church are composed of it. The proximity of as quarry to the rail-
 road is quite an item in the cost of quarry ing. In some places the stone can be picked up by derrick and dropped directly on to car, while at others it has to be handled twice or carted on wagons six or eight miles. Some quarries cannot be worked in cold weather, because the rock freezes, becomes much harder loses it's natural cleavages--in fact, changes it's nature from gneiss to granite.
 The quarries at Portland and Millstone Point are the largest in the State.
 'Al the gneiss and granite rocks will stand the weather perfectly. They will not, how
 ever, stand a strong fire, because they crumble
 under strong heat. The State is pretty we'll
 provided with most of the varieties of stone
 needed in all kinds of building and engineer
 ing work, but we are obliged to import all the
 slate that we use. North river blue stone is
 also largely imported for sidewalk paving" The next lecture of the course will be given tomorrow evening by Professor Verrill, on Artificial Propagation and Culture of Fish.'' Donations.
 Last evening Chief Hendrick received two