The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-27
THE NEW AGE OF STONE.

Centuries, ages ago, according to re-
 cords left by the relics, there was a
 Stone Age" in the world Implements
 of war. tools of all description and
 articles of household use were all made
 of flint or other hard stone, work ed
 oHt by slow and laborious processes
 and sadly deficient when compared to
 those of our time. And in America
 that age lasted to comparatively recent historic times. The first Europeans to
 visit the new world rareIy saw articles
 made of metal. Axes and tomahawks, arrow heads and spear7heads, domestic
 implements and practically all else
 were of stone. manufactured by the
 same slow and laborious process that doubtless marked their manufacture thousands of years ago in Europe. It
 is not unlik ely that there are yet re-
 gions of earth where the uses of iron and steel and other metals are un known, and stone is still used.
 All that has long passed, so far as civilized countries are concerned and we of this age can hardly conceive of a day when metal was unknown. Now, however, there seems good prospect of what may be another stone age. This time 1t Is not natural. but artificial stone. and not for tools and cutting Instruments, but for building purposes. It is to be manufactured stone against other forms of building materials. An editorial in The Kansas City Journal has this to say about it:
 The advance of the fluid stone" in. dustry in this country has been of- astonishing rapidity. only a rev years limited to a few conventional forms and the output was only enough 10 meet the modest demand. But sudden of brains and resources devoted them selves to studying this new material with a view to it's wider adaptatlon for building purposes, Almost Wi wltas h. building with reinforced concrete be- came popular, and the result Of It's spreading popularity is that today thousands of avenues are open to the concrete and cement industry that were heretofore unknown. The adVan- tages of 'bullding with concrete are many. In the matter or flreprootlhg alone it Is estimated that millions of dollars can be saved in this country every year. Concrete construction is also more durable than wood, growing harder each year instead of degener- ating. and in many other respects proving superior to wood.
 The ma aterials from which cement is made lie in almost inexhaustible quan-
 FrFH rNt a few years ago the cement business was small and uninviting to the capi- talist But that was in the days when the cement sidewalk represented the Now engineers are realizing that the age of cement is in its infancy and that not only will this material enable them to build stronger and more en- during structures, but most of the varied problems of wood construction promise to he solved through this won derful agency.
 There have not been wanting those to advance the theory that some at least of the great pyramids of Egypt were made of this fluid stone" as 1t is called, but this theory has not been substantlated, The belief no doubt. was largely based on the fact that 1t is difficult to conceive how those ancient Egyptian builders of thousands of years ago could have shaped and lifted into position such monstrous solid blocks as are to bo found in some of those wonderful works of the ancients. To us 1t is dihacult to understand how a people, comparatively weak, physically, could,