26 



THE MUSEUM. 



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A Visit to a Lapidist's Shop. 



BY BERLIN H. WRIGHT, PENN VAN, N. Y. 



The desire of years, to see a lapidist 

 at work and witness the process by 

 which the dull, uninteresting fragments 

 of minerals are shaped and polished 

 into things of beauty, was recently 

 gratified, and it was so interesting to 

 me that I thought it would be equally 

 so to many of the readers of natural 

 history literature. 



This disideratum to my happiness 

 was supplied in a visit to the establish- 

 ment of Mr John G. Buxton of Milo 

 Centre, N. Y., to whom I am indebt- 

 ed for the kindness and attention which 

 made my visit so pleasant and profit- 

 able. 



The first object that attracts atten- 

 tion on entering the commodious and 

 well lighted shop is an immense grind- 

 stone, fifty inches in diameter, of pe- 

 culiar grit, and running at one hundred 

 revolutions a minute, and so nicely 

 hung that it is not fastened to the 

 floor. On this the minerals are ground 

 after being sawed into shape by the 

 automatic feeding diamond edged saws. 

 These saws run in oil and eat their way 

 almost noiselessly through the hardest 

 rocks. The clamps and lead screws 

 which hold the mass to be sawed in 

 place, are so nicely adjusted that very 

 thin slabs of minerals can be taken off, 

 and with sides perfectly parallel. 



Erom the saw to the grindstone, 

 and from thence to the polishing laps, 

 the minerals go. These laps are six- 

 teen inches in diameter, made of tin, 

 wood, felt, etc., and are horizontal. 

 They revolve at a tremendous speed — 

 and b}' the aid of various powders they 

 soon remove all fcratches left by the 

 rough grindstone. Then the last touch 

 is given by the felt lap which gives the 

 mineral a shining, mirror-like surface. 



All this machinejy is run by a trim 

 little engine of five-horse power. 



We turn our attention to the mater- 

 ial, and find boxes of crude material to 

 be reduced to cabinet specimens and 

 wonder how the finished product will 

 look. I had previously turned over to 

 Mr. Buxton a lot of geodes, agates, 

 etc. , taken from my cabinet for him to 

 operate upon. Specimens were ex- 

 tremely uninteresting to the average 

 person, possessed of no external beau- 

 ty. Can it be possible that those 

 beautifully polished shibs, showing such 

 vivid contrasts of coloration and pat- 

 terns are portions of those original 

 masses which had remained so many 

 years upon my shelves unnoticed.' The 

 changeable undulating luster or reflec- 

 tions from the glassy-green Labrador- 

 ite flashed its dazzling tints upon our 

 enraptured vision and then vanished, 

 as if by magic, leaving us to wonder 

 what it was we saw. 



Miniature forests or wooded land- 

 scapes are brought out in the slabs of 

 Landscape Marble, giving us an exhi- 

 bition of an attempt to crystalize — the 

 the same as we see upon the window 

 pane on a cold morning or in the Den- 

 dritic formations in the Moss Agate, 

 etc. The geodes, 'Septoria, etc., show- 

 ing the completed process. 



The architectural and mechanical 

 skill of the minute coral insects of ages 

 long gone by is beautifully shown in 

 the slabs of'Favosites, Madrepores and 

 the large group of Cyathophylloid cor- 

 als from the Devonian rocks whose 

 correct determination depends so large- 

 ly upon a knowledge of the structural 

 features made visible by such sections. 



