10 



THE FLORAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



That very stone is hard as adamant, 

 where it lies concealed from the atmos- 

 phere, in the seclusion of superincum- 

 bent strata, but in the exterior facing 

 of the cliff it crumbles like touchwood, 

 so effectually does the atmosphere 

 operate on its mired ingredients. In 

 the same way the Dover cliffs, and, in- 

 deed, the rocks generally, on our east 

 coast, of which the basis is, in most cases 

 calcareous, are the most perishable of 

 any with which we are acquainted. On 

 the other hand, the most durable natu- 

 ral stones, are those which are composed 

 wholly, or nearly so, of silica, the 

 particles being held together by a 

 natural siliceous cement, and altoge- 

 ther free from marl or limestone. To 

 succeed, therefore, in any imitation of 

 these, or, as in the case of liansome's 

 imperishable compound, to surpass 

 them, a perfectly homogenous material 

 must be produced, and one, too, that 

 can be handled first in a loose form, 

 so as to be moulded to any required de- 

 sign, otherwise the sculptor's chisel 

 would have to be called into requisition, 

 and the principal advantage would be 

 lost — for it is not the mere material so 

 much as its capability of being made 

 ornamental at a low rate of cost, that 

 renders a perfect substitute for stone so 

 desirable. 



Now, though Mr. Ransome has spent 

 twelve years of his life in maturing the 

 idea which first called him into this pecu- 

 liar field of experiment, the result may, 

 in its essence, be very briefly told. His 

 first hint of the necessity of some such 

 material as that which he has succeeded 

 in producing, was obtained from noticing 

 a workman renewing the surface of a 

 mill-stone, and he was struck by the 

 apparent absurdity of having to chip 

 away, not only the soft parts of the 

 stone, but also the hard siliceous pro- 

 minences which constituted the real 

 efficient portion of the surface. Here 

 was seen the main difficulty, and also 

 the mode of encountering it. The 

 perishability of stone is chiefly due to 

 its heterogenous character, the atmos- 

 phere acting variably on its several 

 ingredients, and thus even its most last- 

 ing elements are destroyed by their 

 association with materials of a perishable 

 nature. It occurred to Mr. Ransome, 



that if he could re-unite the particles of 

 silex, on which the atmosphere has no 

 effect, and obtain a cement to hold them 

 together, also of silex, one uniform 

 structure would prevail throughout, 

 and the material would present none of 

 those weak points to the atmosphere 

 which most natural stones do, through 

 the presence in them of ingredients that 

 may be chemically acted on by mois- 

 ture, and such other active agents as 

 are always present in the atmosphere. 



It might interest our readers to des- 

 cribe the several steps pursued to the 

 attainment of this end, but our limited 

 space forbids, and it must suffice to say, 

 that a method was at last discovered of 

 uniting silica by means of silica, the 

 basis of the materials being siliceous 

 sand and powdered flint, and the cement 

 an alkaline solution of flint. After the 

 usual processes of working in the form of 

 a paste, and then moulding to the artist's 

 design, the alkaline solution of silica, 

 which holds the loose particles together, 

 till the last touch of the artist has been 

 given to the plastic mass, is, by ex- 

 posure to a high temperature, rendered 

 semi-vitreous, and insoluble ; and the 

 whole mass is held together by a glassy 

 silicate on which neither air nor mois- 

 ture can produce the least effect. 



Now, what most concerns the gar- 

 dener as to this invention, is its dm - abi- 

 lity and the persistency with which it 

 retains its character under exposure to 

 the weather — a quality which distin- 

 guishes it as much from every other 

 substitute for stoue, as its crystalline 

 beauty, its bright tone and colour, and, 

 as worked out by the Company, the 

 splendid forms of high art in which it 

 is produced. If science has brought 

 her highest appliances to bear on its 

 actual production, Art, her twin sister, 

 has nobly co-operated, and, for pur- 

 poses of garden embellishment, we 

 never before had such a choice of classic 

 patterns, or so many new appliances 

 of stone, as Mr. Ransome has placed 

 within our reach, at prices no higher 

 than we used to pay for inferior ce- 

 ments. 



The "Jardinet," which I had the 

 pleasure of describing lately in the 

 Collage Gurdcner, is an example 

 of an original contrivance as well as of 



