€. Lely | April, 
III. RANSOME’S PATENT CONCRETE STONE. 
By Frep. Cuas. Danvers, A.I.C.E, M.S.E. 
Amonest the numerous inventions of the present age, we find but 
few aiming at an imitation of the works of Nature in so early an 
era as that which bears date long prior to the creation of man. 
With the advancement of scientific research, the aid of chemistry is 
now more generally sought than formerly, with a view to the crea- 
tion or production of articles of general use, or to assist in the 
preparation and manufacture of some of our leading staple pro- 
ductions. Who, fifty years ago, would have thought of attempt- 
ing the manufacture of stone? although many alchemists have in 
earlier days worn out their existence in the attempt to manufacture 
diamonds and gold. Yet now we see the art of man rivalling in 
its productions some of the supposed earliest strata of our globe, 
and the manufactured sandstone of the present day has been found 
by experiment to be superior to that obtainable in the best known 
quarries. Manufactured by the aid of chemistry, that agency has 
also itself been used to test its endurance, and the results show that, 
so far as can be ascertained by such means, the patent concrete 
stone is likely to endure far longer, when used in buildings or for 
other purposes to which it may be applied, than any of our natural 
sandstones ; and we cannot but feel a conviction that not only will 
the invention of Mr. Frederick Ransome shortly lead to a con- 
siderable convulsion in the building trades, but that it will prove 
also a stepping-stone to other inventions of scarcely less importance 
and usefulness. 
Mr. Ransome formerly belonged to the well-known engineering 
firm of that name at Ipswich, and it was whilst connected with 
them, and so long back as the year 1844, that his attention was 
first drawn to the subject of artificial stone. During the manu- 
facture of some flour-mills for one of the colonies, Mr. Ransome’s 
attention was directed to the unequal hardness of certain portions 
of a burr-stone when overlooking a workman renewing its worn-out 
ridges. It occurred to him that much time might be saved, and 
greater economy of working secured, if a stone of uniform grit could 
be obtained which would wear away evenly upon its surface. Col- 
lecting m his hand some of the surrounding chips, the idea suddenly 
suggested itself to his mind that some suitable means of cementing 
them together only was required in order to produce a stone of 
uniform hardness throughout. The first agency employed for this 
purpose was plaster of Paris, but this failing to give the desired 
results, he subsequently employed every other known material 
likely to act as a cement, during which experiments, though un- 
