4P2 THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Book II.

jire reunited by an acid and softened without being decomposed. The cement is mixed
with the acid, and the stone reconstructed to its original condition." Tlie process has
been used, 1887, at the Churcli for the Deaf and Dumb, in Oxford Street; the Church of
S. I'aul, London Docks; and the Infant Orphan Asylum, VVanstead, btsides other places.
ARTIFICIAL STONE.
1667o. The term is sometimes made to comprise not only Ttrra-Cotia, which is noticed
in this work in the section Bkick, but also the many Cuncrttes, which are described in the
section Lime, &.c. Those mixtures or concreted masses having more affinity to the
original they profess to imitate are here desLribea.
1667/7. Austins artificial stone Wiis invented about fifty years since, duiing which period
it lias been well tested. It is used chiefly in the manufacture of statues, garden ornaments,
cliimney shafts, and the like. 'Ihis material is generally considered to be little else than
ordinary cement, but it is plain there is much more ingenuity in the mitter; at all events,
it is evidently a concrete of sand and so on. cemented by lime ; it is not burnt as is often
suuuosed. and much of its value is no doubt due to tlie manipulation of the materials.
\C>6~q. liaiisonies silictcus stone was patented in 1844. Calcimd Hints ground to a fine
powder were mixed with common soda (sub-carbonate of soda) rendered caustic, and water,
the mixture bein.g boiled under steam pressure
;
he thus obtained the silicate of soda in a
li(|iiid form. To one part of this water yla:s he added ten parts of sand, a little pounded
flint, and a little clay ;
mixed the who^e to a putty; made castings of tlie desired form
under comiiression ; dried tiiese, huriU the n in a kiln to a bright red he.it, and so made
them into blocks of stone. The chemical question was this: the alkali of the soluble si]ic;ite
of soda combined with a portion of the natural silica or sand, and thus formed an insoluble
silicate or glass, as a cement, wherewith the remainder of the sand became concreted to-
gether. A sandstone was produced, and technically one of a silicious type
;
but its con-
necting medium was not crystalline as in nature, but as an equivalent, professedly vitreous.
This vitreous element, however, was always seen to be its blemish, and the manufacture is
now discontinued for the following more recent invention by the same patentee.
\66~r. During the experiments inade for obtaining a liquid or liquids wlierewitii to
WMsh the surface of stone after it has been worked, Ransome selected and applied tlie
silicate of soda, and upon the saturated surface a solution of chloride of calcium. A double
dicomposition then follows, not slowly but instantly, and the silicate of soda and chloride
of calcium, the one, an insoluble substance filling the pores of the stone, and the other,
common salt to be waslied out by the weather. Pieces of the putty out of hicli the jjre-
viously described si.icious stone was daily made, i.e. sandmixed up with silicate of soda, were
dipped in chloride of calcium, out of which it came chang.d to a hard and solid stone.
Tliis rather unexpected result led to the formation of an entirely new s])ecies of arti-
ficial stone, in a manner which was related by ProfLSSor Kerr iit a meeting of the Institute
of British Arciiitects in 1863, from whose account we have been quoting.
iGVtls. Ilansome's Concrete stone ]ii the name given to this new material, inventtd in ISGl.
Tlie process of manufacture now followed is first to dissolve flints in caustic alkali at a
tenqierature of 350 Fahr., leaving tliem in a boiler for twenty-four hours. 'I'lic liijuid
then jiroduccd, consisting of silicate of soda, is drawn oflT, and is allowed to evaporate
until it becomes a thick matter like treacle. It is next mixed with clean pit sand incor-
porated witii five to ten per cent, of chalk in a pug mill, and in four to five minutes tiiis
mixture is formed into a stiff putty. It is then pressed into a mould and afterwards either
saturated with, or immersed in, a solution of chloride of calcium, wliich being rapidly
imbibed, the formation of an insoluble silicate of lime and a soluble chloride of sodium or
common salt results. This latter (about three per cent. ) has to be removed by washing, to
edict which it is placed in a iiot-wati-r bath for many hours. The employment of this new
material as stone in building is gaining ground
;
for cast ornaments and moulded work it
has been longer used, and ])iobably it may yet be brought to serve for the ciiisel of the carver.
I667t. The committee of tlie Institute experimented on this material in 1^64. Four-
inch cubes were made of equal parts of sand and coarse ballast, with a quarter j.art of clav
;
on the third day a cube crushed with a weight of 9 35 tons
; on the tenth day with
15
'25 tons. With six parts of s;ind to one of chalk, on the third day a cube crushed with
6 tons; at ten days old, 9 40 and
13
'25 tons. Other samples, liowever, proved to be
weaker, as at eight and thirty-six weeks old, they crushed with 8 4 and
8-4
tons respectively,
yet one of twenty-eight weeks crushed with 14 tons, apparently depending on the depth
of the induration which in the weaker samples was only from 1 to 3 inches. A block
formed of five parts of sand to one of fine silex bore 30 tons when three weeks old, with-
out showing the least effect ; it had been previously tested up to 20 tons. It will be well