Smyrna times., 1935-09-19
SEEK MARBLE
FOR BUILDING
Valued From Earliest Times
AS Most Valuable Build
ing Stone
FAVORED BY SCULPTORS

Washington.-One of the most
strikingly beautiful buildings In
Washington is the new United
States Supreme court building. Its
exterior is fabricated with white
marble, while its interior is en-
hanced with columns and panels of
the same stone but richly colored.
Among the most ornamental of
all building stones, marble has been
valued by architects from earliest
times" says the National Geo
graphic society.
white drums of marble from
Mt. Pentelicus reared toward the
clear blue sky of Athens, the grace
full temples on the Acropolis.
Domed Byzantine structures and
Roman buildings were floored with
mosaics of yari-cOlored marbles,
veined and mOttled. Visitors TO the
Pantheon may tread on marble
floor polished by the pacings of
august Romans over 1.S00 years
ago.
Favored by Sculptors.
Not only has marble been a pop
ular building stone, but it is the
favorite among sculptors. From
it Phidias, Praxiteles. Canova, and
many other artists carved their
masterpieces. Carrara, in north
western Italy, which supplied
Michelangelo with marble for his
famous statue of David, still sup
plies modern sculptors with some
of their finest working materials.
In Carrara, city of quarrymen
and marble cutting factories, even
the humblest homes have white
marble lintels and steps.
The most beau,.-ul foreign mar
bles from Italy, the French Pyre-
nees, and Belgium. In the United
States, marbles underlie most of the
eastern mountains from Vermont
to Georgia, and parts of the Rocky
mountains. Vermont supplies go
per cent of the amount quarried in
this country.
Marble is merely an altered form
of limestone, transformed by heat
and strong pressure. Limestone is
much softer than marble.
Limestone is found in many col
ors ranging from pink and red,
through yellow to green and blue.
From quarries in Indiana and Ken
lucky comes the variety best known
In the United States.
Although limestone is durable,
it deteriorates under acids In the
air and rain, especially under the
sulphuric acid communicating the
air Of cities. How waters contain
ing chemicals affect the stone is
dramatically shown in Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky, where subte-ra-
mean streams have eaten away the
beds of limestone, followed out
vast underground caverns.
Granite Is Valuable.
Granite, igneous rock that has
cooled, is a building stone valued
for its hardness, strength, and
durability. Unlike limestone, 1t is
little affected by chemicals in the
air and rain, but abrupt changes In
temperature frequently cause it to
crack. In regions where the tenn
perature drops so degrees in day,
granite has been known to shatter
into boulders, gravel, and sand.
Because 1t is so hard, the cost of
cutting and polishing granite once
prohibited its use except In rough
ly dressed state. But now less ex-
pensive methods have been discov-
cred, 1t is one of the most popu-
lar building stones.
"Porphyry, another igneous rock,
usually beautiful red In color,
was priced by the Romans, but is
little employed by modern archi-
tects, because OF the difficulty and
expense in cutting and polishing 1t.
New York "'ty's famous brown