BUILDING STONES. 
473 

Specific Gravity 
of Dry Specimens. 
Bulk of Water 
absorbed. 
Weight: per 
Cubic Foot. 
Per cent. 
Ibs. 
Ancaster 
2-18 
16-6 
133 to 139 
Barnack Rag 
2-09 
20-0 
136 
Bath 
2-5 
17-0 
116 to 123 
Doulting 
2-6 

134 
Dundry - 
2-45 
18'8 
126 
Ham Hill 
2-26 

141 
Ketton Freestone 
2-04 
15-1 
128 
Rag 
2-49 
7-0 
155 
Taynton - 


135 
The " crushing weight " for a two-inch cube of Ketton Rag is stated to 
be 321 cwt. : and it is distinguished by its great cohesive strength and high 
specific gravity. For similar cubes of Ketton, Ancaster, and Barnack 
freestones, the crushing weights were 91, 83, and 65 cwt. respectively.* 
Good stone must of course, in all cases, be seasoned. It should 
not be taken from the quarry and used at once, in the " green " 
state. In fact a year's exposure after quarrying in the spring- 
time, may be good and even necessary in some cases. By this 
process the stone being stacked in suitable positions, the inferior 
or faulty stone will be weeded out, for the action of the atmo- 
sphere will tend to crack it up, while the good stone will stand ; 
and most stones in drying will become harder. 
In old times it was more customary than it is now to dress the 
stone on the spot where quarried. At the present day huge 
blocks of Bath Stone and other materials, are often sent by rail, 
and sawn up and dressed near the buildings where the stone is 
wanted. Such a plan has its drawbacks. Blocks sawn up 
and dressed ready for the builder when in the green state, 
and then allowed to dry, are better than those shaped from 
large blocks that .have been left to weather for a season. This 
is because the process of carving and cutting opens fresh sur- 
faces to the atmosphere. Whereas when the stone has been 
exposed to the weather, the " quarry-water " or " sap " dries up 
and forms a kind of cementing glaze over the surface, and this I 
am told renders the stone less liable to atmospheric influence. 
The quarry-water may hold in solution a certain amount of cal- 
careous, siliceous or ferruginous matter. 
In old times moreover the building-stone was almost invariably, 
quarried from the surface where the beds outcropped, and had no 
See Report (above mentioned) ; Judd, GeoJ. Rutland, p. 181. 
