22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Fire tests on limestones 



As a whole, the limestones may be said to have been little affected 

 at the low temperature after slow cooling. Nor has calcination 

 taken place at 550. The sample from Palatine Bridge (13) devel- 

 oped one slight crack around the cube, but the others remained 

 intact. On sudden cooling, the Sandy Hill (5) and Little Falls (12) 

 samples still remained unchanged, but the Amsterdam cube (15) 

 showed one irregular crack around four sides, and the cube from 

 Palatine Bridge (13) was slightly more damaged than the slowly 

 cooled cube. 



At 850 all the samples were calcined to a greater or less extent; 

 due to the varying compositions of the stones. The Little Falls 

 sample (12) showed only slight calcination because it is very dolom- 

 itic and contains much silica. Likewise the cube from Sandy Hill 

 (5) because of its silicious nature, showed little calcination, while 

 the Palatine Bridge stone (13) flaked off considerably. Upon slow 

 cooling the Little Falls sample (12) developed one small crack 

 around two sides, while the Palatine Bridge cube (13) flaked off 

 badly and showed some cracks. After sudden cooling the Little 

 Falls stone still continued to stand up very well, showing but two 

 slight cracks. The Sandy Hill cube (5) developed one open crack on 

 one side, and the Palatine Bridge stone (13) showed one open crack 

 around three sides besides some transverse ones. In the slowly 

 cooled cube the quicklime flaked off, but in the suddenly cooled 

 one it did not flake. This is due, probably, to the "setting" of 

 the quicklime when the water was applied. 



The sample from Little Falls (12) was the only one to lose a piece 

 from^the corner in the flame tests. The others were slightly 

 cracked but lost no pieces from the corners. In all cases, however, 

 the action of the flame and water damaged the corners to the extent 

 that pieces came off. The sample from Little Falls (i 2) lost a large 

 piece and the Sandy Hill (5) and Amsterdam (15) stones lost smaller 

 pieces, while the cube^from Palatine Bridge (13) was quite badly 

 injured. 



