Chapter 7

The facts adduced permit us to understand how it was possible to bear one of the proofs to which it is said those were submitted who wished to be initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. In a vast vaulted chamber nearly a hundred feet long, there were erected two fences formed of posts, around which were wound branches of Arabian balm, Egyptian thorn, and tamarind--all very flexible and inflammable woods. When this was set on fire the flames arose as far as the vault, licked it, and gave the chamber the appearance of a hot furnace, the smoke escaping through pipes made for the purpose. Then the door was suddenly opened before the neophyte, and he was ordered to traverse this burning place, whose floor was composed of an incandescent grating.

The Abbé Terrason recounts all these details in his historic romance "Sethos," printed at the end of last century. Unfortunately literary frauds were in fashion then, and the book, published as a translation of an old Greek manuscript, gives no indication of sources. I have sought in special works for the data which the abbé must have had as a basis, but I have not been able to find them. I suppose, however, that this description, which is so precise, is not merely a work of the imagination. The author goes so far as to give the dimensions of the grating (30 feet by 8), and, greatly embarrassed to explain how his hero was enabled to traverse it without being burned, is obliged to suppose it to have been formed of very thick bars, between which Sethos had care to place his feet. But this explanation is inadmissible. He who had the courage to rush, head bowed, into the midst of the flames, certainly would not have amused himself by choosing the place to put his feet. Braving the fire that surrounded his entire body, he must have had no other thought than that of reaching the end of his dangerous voyage as soon as possible. We cannot see very well, moreover, how this immense grate, lying on the ground, was raised to a red heat and kept at such a temperature. It is infinitely more simple to suppose that between the two fences there was a ditch sufficiently deep in which a fire had also been lighted, and which was covered by a grating as in the Aldini experiments. It is even probable that this grating was of copper, which, illuminated by the fireplace, must have presented a terrifying brilliancy, while in reality it served only to prevent the flames from the fireplace reaching him who dared to brave them.

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THE BUILDING STONE SUPPLY.

The use of stone as a building material was not resorted to, except to a trifling extent, in this country until long after the need of such a solid substance was felt. The early settler contented himself with the log cabin, the corduroy road, and the wooden bridge, and loose stone enough for foundation purposes could readily be gathered from the surface of the earth. Even after the desirability of more handsome and durable building material for public edifices in the colonial cities than wood became apparent, the ample resources which nature had afforded in this country were overlooked, and brick and stone were imported by the Dutch and English settlers from the Old World. Thus we find the colonists of the New Netherlands putting yellow brick on their list of non-dutiable imports in 1648; and such buildings in Boston as are described as being "fairly set forth with brick, tile, slate, and stone," were thus provided only with foreign products. Isolated instances of quarrying stone are known to have occurred in the last century; but they are rare. The edifice known as "King's Chapel," Boston, erected in 1752, is the first one on record as being built from American stone; this was granite, brought from Braintree, Mass.

Granite is a rock particularly abundant in New England, though also found in lesser quantities elsewhere in this country. The first granite quarries that were extensively developed were those at Quincy, Mass., and work began at that point early in the present century. The fame of the stone became widespread, and it was sent to distant markets--even to New Orleans. The old Merchants' Exchange in New York (afterward used as a custom house) the Astor House in that city, and the Custom House in New Orleans, all nearly or quite fifty years old, were constructed of Quincy granite, as were many other fine buildings along the Atlantic coast. In later years, not only isolated public edifices, but also whole blocks of stores, have been constructed of this material. It was from the Quincy quarries that the first railroad in this country was built; this was a horse-railroad, three miles long, extending to Neponset River, built in 1827.

Other points in Massachusetts have been famed for their excellent granite. After Maine was set off as a distinct State, Fox Island acquired repute for its granite, and built up an extensive traffic therein. Westerly, R.I., has also been engaged in quarrying this valuable rock for many years, most of its choicer specimens having been wrought for monumental purposes. Statues and other elaborate monumental designs are now extensively made therefrom. Smaller pieces and a coarser quality of the stone are here and elsewhere along the coast obtained in large quantities for the construction of massive breakwaters to protect harbors. Another point famous for its granite is Staten Island, New York. This stone weighs 180 pounds to the cubic foot, while the Quincy granite weighs but 165. The Staten Island product is used not only for building purposes, but is also especially esteemed for paving after both the Russ and Belgian patents. New York and other cities derive large supplies from this source. The granite of Weehawken, N.J., is of the same character, and greatly in demand. Port Deposit, Md., and Richmond, Va, are also centers of granite production. Near Abbeville, S.C., and in Georgia, granite is found quite like that of Quincy. Much southern granite, however, decomposes readily, and is almost as soft as clay. This variety of stone is found in great abundance in the Rocky Mountains; but, except to a slight extent in California, it is not yet quarried there.

Granite, having little grain, can be cut into blocks of almost any size and shape. Specimens as much as eighty feet long have been taken out and transported great distances. The quarrying is done by drilling a series of small holes, six inches or more deep and almost the same distance apart, inserting steel wedges along the whole line and then tapping each gently with a hammer in succession, in order that the strain may be evenly distributed.

A building material that came into use earlier than granite is known as freestone or sandstone; although its first employment does not date back further than the erection of King's Chapel, Boston, already referred to as the earliest well-known occasion where granite was used in building. Altogether the most famous American sandstone quarries are those at Portland, on the Connecticut River, opposite Middletown. These were worked before the Revolution; and their product has been shipped to many distant points in the country. The long rows of "brownstone fronts" in New York city are mostly of Portland stone, though in many cases the walls are chiefly of brick covered with thin layers of the stone. The old red sandstone of the Connecticut valley is distinguished in geology for the discovery of gigantic fossil footprints of birds, first noticed in the Portland quarries in 1802. Some of these footprints measured ten to sixteen inches, and they were from four to six feet apart. The sandstone of Belleville, N.J., has also extensive use and reputation. Trinity Church in New York city and the Boston Atheneum are built of the product of these quarries; St. Lawrence County, New York, is noted also for a fine bed of sandstone. At Potsdam it is exposed to a depth of seventy feet. There are places though, in New England, New York, and Eastern Pennsylvania, where a depth of three hundred feet has been reached. The Potsdam sandstone is often split to the thinness of an inch. It hardens by exposure, and is often used for smelting furnace hearth-stones. Shawangunk Mountain, in Ulster County, yields a sandstone of inferior quality, which has been unsuccessfully tried for paving; as it wears very unevenly. From Ulster, Greene, and Albany Counties sandstone slabs for sidewalks are extensively quarried for city use; the principal outlets of these sections being Kingston, Saugerties, Coxsackie, Bristol, and New Baltimore, on the Hudson. In this region quantities amounting to millions of square feet are taken out in large sheets, which are often sawed into the sizes desired. The vicinity of Medina, in Western New York, yields a sandstone extensively used in that section for paving and curbing, and a little for building. A rather poor quality of this stone has been found along the Potomac, and some of it was used in the erection of the old Capitol building at Washington. Ohio yields a sandstone that is of a light gray color; Berea, Amherst, Vermilion, and Massillon are the chief points of production. St. Genevieve, Mo., yields a stone of fine grain of a light straw color, which is quite equal to the famous Caen stone of France. The Lake Superior sandstones are dark and coarse grained, but strong.

In some parts of the country, where neither granite nor sandstone is easily procured, blue and gray limestone are sometimes used for building, and, when hammer dressed, often look like granite. A serious objection to their use, however, is the occasional presence of iron, which rusts on exposure, and defaces the building. In Western New York they are widely used. Topeka stone, like the coquine of Florida and Bermuda, is soft like wood when first quarried, and easily wrought, but it hardens on exposure. The limestones of Canton, Mo., Joliet and Athens, Ill., Dayton, Sandusky, Marblehead, and other points in Ohio, Ellittsville, Ind., and Louisville and Bowling Green, Ky., are great favorites west. In many of these regions limestone is extensively used for macadamizing roads, for which it is excellently adapted. It also yields excellent slabs or flags for sidewalks.

One of the principal uses of this variety of stone is its conversion, by burning, into lime for building purposes. All limestones are by no means equally excellent in this regard. Thomaston lime, burned with Pennsylvania coal, near the Penobscot River, has had a wide reputation for nearly half a century. It has been shipped thence to all points along the Atlantic coast, invading Virginia as far as Lynchburg, and going even to New Orleans, Smithfield, R.I., and Westchester County, N.Y., near the lower end of the Highlands, also make a particularly excellent quality of lime. Kingston, in Ulster County, makes an inferior sort for agricultural purposes. The Ohio and other western stones yield a poor lime, and that section is almost entirely dependent on the east for supplies.

Marbles, like limestones, with which they are closely related, are very abundant in this country, and are also to be found in a great variety of colors. As early as 1804 American marble was used for statuary purposes. Early in the century it also obtained extensive employment for gravestones. Its use for building purposes has been more recent than granite and sandstone in this country; and it is coming to supersede the latter to a great degree. For mantels, fire-places, porch pillars, and like ornamental purposes, however, our variegated, rich colored and veined or brecciated marbles were in use some time before exterior walls were made from them. Among the earliest marble buildings were Girard College in Philadelphia and the old City Hall in New York, and the Custom House in the latter city, afterward used for a sub-treasury. The new Capitol building at Washington is among the more recent structures composed of this material. Our exports of marble to Cuba and elsewhere amount to over $300,000 annually, although we import nearly the same amount from Italy. And yet an article can be found in the United States fully as fine as the famous Carrara marble. We refer to that which comes from Rutland, Vt. This state yields the largest variety and choicest specimens. The marble belt runs both ways from Rutland County, where the only quality fit for statuary is obtained. Toward the north it deteriorates by growing less sound, though finer in grain; while to the south it becomes coarser. A beautiful black marble is obtained at Shoreham, Vt. There are also handsome brecciated marbles in the same state; and in the extreme northern part, near Lake Champlain, they become more variegated and rich in hue. Such other marble as is found in New England is of an inferior quality. The pillars of Girard College came from Berkshire, Mass., which ranks next after Vermont in reputation.

The marble belt extends from New England through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, to Georgia and Alabama. Some of the variegated and high colored varieties obtained near Knoxville, Tenn., nearly equal that of Vermont. The Rocky Mountains contain a vast abundance and variety.

Slate was known to exist in this country to a slight extent in colonial days. It was then used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing and school purposes. But most of our supplies came from Wales. It is stated that a slate quarry was operated in Northampton County, Pa., as early as 1805. In 1826 James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the business, obtaining their supplies from the Kittanninny Mountains. From this time the business developed rapidly, the village of Slateford being an outgrowth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the product down the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By 1860 the industry had reached the capacity of 20,000 cases of slate, valued at $10 a case, annually. In 1839 quarries were opened in the Piscataquis River, forty miles north of Bangor, Me., but poor transportation facilities retarded the business. Vermont began to yield in 1852. New York's quarries are confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of Marquette, Mich., contain slate, which is also said to exist in Pike County, Ga.

Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and Grafton, N. H., and near Salt Lake, but our chief supply comes from Haywood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon counties, in North Carolina, and our product is so large that we can afford to export it. Other stones, such as silex, for making glass, etc., are found in profusion in various parts of the country, but we have no space to enter into a detailed account of them at present.--_Pottery and Glassware Reporter_.

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AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 per cent, in the number of farms since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 per cent., and in Pennsylvania 22.7 per cent., though the increase in population, and doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much smaller. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois also, have been considered fully settled States for years, at least in an agricultural point of view, and yet the number of farms has increased 26.1 per cent, in ten years in Ohio, 20.3 percent, in Indiana, and 26.1 per cent, in Illinois. The obvious explanation is that the growth of many cities and towns has created a market for a far greater supply of those products which may be most advantageously grown upon farms of moderate size; but even if this fully accounts for the phenomenon, the change must be recognized as one of the highest importance industrially, socially, and politically. The man who owns or rents and cultivates a farm stands on a very different footing from the laborer who works for wages. It is not a small matter that, in these six States alone, there are 205,000 more owners or managers of farms than there were only a decade ago.

As we go further toward the border, west or north, the influence of the settlement of new land is more distinctly felt. Even in Michigan, where new railroads have opened new regions to settlement, the increase in number of farms has been over 55 per cent. In Wisconsin, though the increase in railroad mileage has been about the same as in Michigan, the reported increase in number of farms has been only 28 per cent., but in Iowa it rises to 60 per cent., and in Minnesota to nearly 100 per cent. In Kansas the number of farms is 138,561, against 38,202 in 1870; in Nebraska 63,387, against 12,301; and in Dakota 17,435, against 1,720. In these regions the process is one of creation of new States rather than a change in the social and industrial condition of the population.

Some Southern States have gained largely, but the increase in these, though very great, is less surprising than the new States of the Northwest. The prevailing tendency of Southern agriculture to large farms and the employment of many hands is especially felt in States where land is still abundant. The greatest increase is in Texas, where 174,184 farms are reported, against 61,125 in 1870; in Florida, with 23,438 farms, against 10,241 in 1870; and in Arkansas, with 94,433 farms, against 49,424 in 1870. In Missouri 215,575 farms are reported, against 148,228 in 1870. In these States, though social changes have been great, the increase in number of farms has been largely due to new settlements, as in the States of the far Northwest. But the change in the older Southern States is of a different character.

Virginia, for example, has long been settled, and had 77,000 farms thirty years ago. But the increase in number within the past ten years has been 44,668, or 60.5 per cent. Contrasting this with the increase in New York, a remarkable difference appears. West Virginia had few more farms ten years ago than New Jersey; now it has nearly twice as many, and has gained in number nearly 60 per cent. North Carolina, too, has increased 78 per cent. in number of farms since 1870, and South Carolina 80 per cent. In Georgia the increase has been still greater--from 69,956 to 138,626, or nearly 100 per cent. In Alabama there are 135,864 farms, against 67,382 in 1870, an increase of over 100 per cent. These proportions, contrasted with those for the older Northern States, reveal a change that is nothing less than an industrial revolution. But the force of this tendency to division of estates has been greatest in the States named. Whereas the ratio of increase in number of farms becomes greater in Northern States as we go from the East toward the Mississippi River, at the South it is much smaller in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana than in the older States on the Atlantic coast. Thus in Louisiana the increase has been from 28,481 to 48,292 farms, or 70 per cent., and in Mississippi from 68,023 to 101,772 farms, or less than 50 per cent., against 100 in Alabama and Georgia. In Kentucky the increase has been from 118,422 to 166,453 farms, or 40 per cent., and in Tennessee from 118,141 to 165,650 farms, or 40 per cent., against 60 in Virginia and West Virginia, and 78 in North Carolina. Thus, while the tendency to division is far greater than in the Northern States of corresponding age, it is found in full force only in six of the older Southern States, Alabama, West Virginia, and four on the Atlantic coast. In these, the revolution already effected foreshadows and will almost certainly bring about important political changes within a few years. In these six States there 310,795 more farm owners or occupants than there were ten years ago.--_N.Y. Tribune_.

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A FARMER'S LIME KILN.

For information about burning lime we republish the following article furnished by a correspondent of the _Country Gentleman_ several years ago:

I send you a description and sketch of a lime-kiln put up on my premises about five years ago. The dimensions of this kiln are 13 feet square by 25 feet high from foundation, and its capacity 100 bushels in 24 hours. It was constructed of the limestone quarried on the spot. It has round iron rods (shown in sketch) passing through, with iron plates fastened to the ends as clamps to make it more firm; the pair nearest the top should be not less than 2 feet from that point, the others interspersed about 2 feet apart--the greatest strain being near the top. The arch should be 7 feet high by 5½ wide in front, with a gather on the top and sides of about 1 foot, with plank floor; and if this has a little incline it will facilitate shoveling the lime when drawn. The arch should have a strong capstone; also one immediately under the well of the kiln, with a hole 2 feet in diameter to draw the lime through; or two may be used with semicircle cut in each. Iron bars 2 inches wide by 1/8 inch thick are used in this kiln for closing it, working in slots fastened to capstone. These slots must be put in before the caps are laid. When it is desired to draw lime, these bars may be pushed laterally in the slots, or drawn out entirely, according to circumstances; 3 bars will be enough. The slots are made of iron bars 1½ inches wide, with ends rounded and turned up, and inserted in holes drilled through capstone and keyed above.

The well of the kiln is lined with fire-brick one course thick, with a stratum of coal ashes three inches thick tamped in between the brick and wall, which proves a great protection to the wall. About 2,000 fire-bricks were used. The proprietors of this kiln say about one-half the lower part of the well might have been lined with a first quality of common brick and saved some expense and been just as good. The form of the well shown in Fig. 3 is 7 feet in diameter in the bilge, exclusive of the lining of brick and ashes. Experiments in this vicinity have proved this to be the best, this contraction toward the top being absolutely necessary, the expansion of the stone by the heat is so great that the lime cannot be drawn from perpendicular walls, as was demonstrated in one instance near here, where a kiln was built on that principle. The kiln, of course, is for coal, and our stone requires about three-quarters of a ton per 100 bushels of lime, but this, I am told, varies according to quality, some requiring more than others; the quantity can best be determined by experimenting; also the regulation of the heat--if too great it will cause the stones to melt or run together as it were, or, if too little, they will not be properly burned. The business requires skill and judgment to run it successfully.