The Indianapolis journal., 1885-12-07
INDIANA BUILDING STONE,

4uO1ANd DU1uO1NU 04ONhs
Mr.. Cobb is making good defense of the
Indiana oolite and whether the government
building at Pittsburg is made Of the Bedford
stone or of granite, the superior merits of the
Hoosier building-stone over any other in the
Mississippi valley will be made apparent. In
diana sends annually over 100000 cubic
feet Of stone to market, employs nearly 5000
men in the quarries, and has over million
dollars invested in quarry outfit The Indiana
stone has been sent by hundreds of carloads
to Philadelphia and New York. The facade
and sculptured figures of the Cotton Exchange
at New Orleans are made of it; the custom
house at Louisville, and many costly build
ings in st. Louis It forms the principal
material of the Marion county court rt-house,
the new Capitol building, and numer-
GUS residences and public buildings in this
city. 1t has no cleavage planes and is
of nearly equal strength, whether resting on
edge or as it lay in the earth. The formation
is generally about forty feet in thickness,
uniform from top to bottom. Stones of any
dimensions which can be handled or trans
ported may be quarried from these beds. The
famous stones Of Baalbec or the obelisks of
Egypt could be doubled in size from the Bed
ford limestones.
A cubic inch of this stone will support over
twelve thousand pounds. 1t is so elastic that
strips Of the stone sawed out three feet long
and square inch in cross section will bend
half inch under the pressure of the thumb,
and at once spring back to place. Its great
elasticity permits it to adapt itself to the
extremes of winter and of summer as we'll as
of outside and inside heat. These differences
of temperature Of outside and inside are at
times over 100 degrees, and are great strain on
building material. This stone withstands
the dangers of freezing and thawing, the
changes from dry to wet, and heat and cold,
prevalent in our climate, quite as we'll as
granite. 1t does not split off; it is scarcely at
all absorbent of water; it is free from efflores-
cent salts, which render pressed brick un-
slightly; it does not discolor from bitumen
dripping from it, or from contained iron salts,
as is the case with many crystalline lime
stones. 1t may fairly be claimed, as is held
by Mr.. Cobb, that the Indiana oolite is the
best and the cheapest building stone in the
Unites States. 1t is chemically almost pure
carbonate of lime. In origin, it belongs to
the class Of sedimentary rocks which are both
chemically and organically formed. The lime
carbonate of which it is composed was held in
solution in the waters of the sub carbonifer-
Gus seas. Shellfsh and corals appropriated
it by absorption from the waters. AS
they died they became the prey of
ocean storms, of waves and currents. and
were pulverized to fine sand and coral mud
These residues have been reunited by the
cementing bonds of carbonate of lime into
the solid rock known as Indiana oolite. It
has the structure of close grained, compact
sandstone, while chemically it is limestone
rock of the rarest purity. Under hammer
and chisel it works as freely as sand
stone. 1t is almost absolutely homogeneous,
working as well in one direction as another,
and the best material in the world for the bold
and free sculpture of free figures and gigantic
groups Cubes of this stone, five feet on
each edge, were worked into capitals for
the great granite columns in the vestibule of
tha Indiana State-house, and Michael Angelo
never took from the quarries of Carara
marbles that possessed their natural
properties for free hand sculpture. But it is
not necessary for the Journal to give Mr..
Cobb any hints as to the fine qualities of the
Indiana oolite. He was raised near the Bed
ford quarries, and his discussion Of the quail
ties of the Indiana oolite shows that his whole
system, osseous and mental, is saturated with
it. Pittsburg has gas and oil, coal, coke and
iron, and if her citizens are wise they will not
howl for New England granite for their new
government building, but will listen to Mr..
Cobb's advice, and make use of the cheaper
and better Indiana ooite.
THE nomination of John Sherman by the