ARTIFICIAL STONE MANUFACTURE. 373 
steam to the cultivation of land and the conveyance of its produce 
to market. In our animal, mechanics, for example, the ground is the 
fulcrum to the foot of the horse and the wheel of the cart, waggon, 
and traction-engine. The Koman philosophers were better acquainted 
with this branch of mechanics than we were prior to the age of rail- 
ways ; hence the economy of muscular power affected by their stone- 
tramways, and the manifold loss we sustain when our teams are wading 
to the knees in our soft, sticky clays. About the economy of brute 
muscle we have hitherto cared less than common sense and our pockets 
have told us ; but now that the steam-horse is puffing in our fields, the 
outlay in coals and other etceteras is begining to lecture on the subject 
of economy in another fashion, making the oldest people hear on the 
deaf-side of the head, and think likewise ; for our wheels are endless 
levers, and as such they absolutely require something more solid than 
our plastic clays to work upon, — i. e., artificial stone tramways. 
And, lastly, we have the proposition of artificial stone main-drains 
and sewers ; also the bottoms of open ditches, water courses, and rivers, 
so as to prevent the washing away of the land, and to carry off the 
largest quantity of water in the smallest drain or channel and in the 
shortest space of time. This of itself is doubtless a great subject. In 
discussing the problem of applying the sewage of the capital to sandy 
and other open and porous soils some nine or ten years ago, the represent- 
ative of the " Indurated Stone Company " then offered to make sewera 
through the different kinds of soil in question, on terms which were highly 
encouraging both for covered and open work. And there is nothing in 
the chemical nature of such artificial stones to prevent their being also 
used for cisterns and ponds to hold water for cattle. On the contrary, 
they have much to recommend them, so as to obviate the present putrid 
water which is proving detrimental to the health of cattle and quality 
of the milk and meat they yield for our tables. Thus, in opening a 
ditch or watercourse through sandy soils, six inches of the sand in the 
bottom, or any other depth or thickness, can be converted into a solid 
stone, impervious to water, and more durable than the hardest sand- 
stone. 
With regard to moulds and the moulding process, the improvements 
made in practical mechanics since the days of the Picts and ancient 
Eomans are greatly in favour of our proposition, as the work could now 
be done at a fraction of the outlay in time, labour, and money 
which it cost them. Indeed, so great is the balance in favour of modern 
improvement, that a comparison can hardly be drawn between it and 
the rude practice of the olden time ; while it may be safely inferred 
that the progress already made is perhaps further behind the future 
than the past is behind the present. 
Our proposition as a whole, it will thus be seen, is not unworthy of 
a hearing, but the contrary, has many special claims upon the atten- 
