Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-05-22
USE OF ARTIFICIAL STONE.

Il Is Succeeding the Natural Article in
Building Houses and Bridges.
OF all the great improvements which
have been witnessed during the past
twenty "a that Of artificial stone
stands in the front rank. Nearly all
the large cities Of the United States
have their works for manufacturing
artificial stone. and scores of thousands
of barrels of cement are annually used
in the industry. This may not be
news { % people who travel, and are es-
pecially interested in architecture and
engineering work, but Others who have
not had the opportunity Of investiga-
ton would be amazed to see the con
structions in artificial stone which have
taken place in the last decade. The
magnitude of these works would as
found the old Roman engineers, whose
works are historic.
The Vaune aqueduct, thirty-seven
miles long, to supply the city of Paris
with water. is built of composite stone.
Ii comprises two and a half 70 three
miles of arches, some of them as much
as fifty feet high, and eleven miles of
tunnels. 1t also includes eight OF ten
bridges of seventy-five feet span. The
pipe is six and ahalf feet interior diam
eter, with a thickness of nine inches at
the top and twelve inches at the sides.
The lighthouse at Port Said, Egypt, $50
feet high. is another notable example
of artificial construction A. Gothic
church at Nisinet, Paris. is n
piece of stone, including the steeple, 80
feet high. The municipal barracks at
Notre Dame, Paris, Of artificial stone,
have arched ceilings whose spans vary
from twenty-five TO twenty-five feet.
Over thirty-one miles Of tine Paris
sewers are constructed Of this material.
The ietties at the entrance of the Suez
canal are built Of artificial stone blocks,
each weighing about twenty tons, and
16, 600 Of them were used in the i'm
provement of the docks in New York.
Space will not permit Of statement
in detail Of scores of hundreds Of ex-
amples Of artificial stone construction
in this country. but among the more
recent may be mentioned the Pompeian
villa at Saratoga, the Moorish villa,
Hotel Ponce de Leon, Alcazar hotel
and the Casa Monica, St. Augustine,
Fla. These hotels, the most magnificent
in the world, are constructed of artit-
cial stone, including roof towers, cell
ings, baths, etc. There is not a joint
in these immense structures. The bal
comics, high up on the towers, are OF
solid terra Gotta, and weigh five tons
apiece. The Casa Monica has a front
age of 450 feet. More than 10000
barrels of cement were used in the con.
struction Of these hotels.
\ dwelling was erected a few year:
ago at Port Chester, without joint OF
seam. The house is f%ireproof. The
floors, roof, stairways and towers are
all of stone and 1000 barrels of cement
were used.
An interesting application Of thi
material in the construction of a hollow
sustaining wall was made at the GENE
terry Of Passy in supporting a bank o
earth 20 IL feet high. Numerous rus
tic bridges in parks and cemeteries il
various parts OF the country have beer
built of this material. The most i'm
portant and general uses, however, u
which artificial stone is put is that o
trimmings for brick buildings.
It is specially adapted for entir
, fronts of commercial buildings and 70
churches, schools, hospitals and dwell
, ings. 1t is also largely used for wa
/, facingin Easements Of frame dwelling:
Late improvements have been MAD
, which greatly enhance its value as
. building material, whereby the surface
of the stone are made rough, represenr
. ing the tool work Of the ~stonecuttel
\ And buildings erected of this materi'
are represented as being much admired
and the stone in them is not easily di
tinguished from the natural stone
Rochester Post Express.