MONEY IN BUILDING MATERIALS.
Boundless Wealth in Brick, Wood and Stone--Farmers Who have
Untouched and Unknown Mines--A Man With 2,000,000 Acres--How a
Farmer Astonished a Lawyer--A New Way to Measure Land--Men Who
Don’t Know They are Rich--Are You One?--More Money in the Builder’s
Stone than in the Philosopher’s Stone--Secrets of Brick Making--The
Exploits of “Lucky” Baldwin--A Man Who Lives in a Glass House--The
Floor of the Future--Time is Money, but the Shorter the Time the
More the Money.
It is certain that nearly all the structures now upon the earth will
have to be rebuilt during the next half century. When we consider the
immense cost and vast number of these buildings, aggregating thousand of
millions of dollars, the demand for building materials surpasses all
computation and imagination. During the next few decades untold myriads
of persons will get rich, either in this discovery of new fields for
these materials, exploiting the old ones, or in the invention of new
building matter.
“How large is your farm?” inquired a lawyer of a verdant farmer whom he
meant to guy. The man of the law winked at his companion as much as to
say, “See what sport I will have with the old fool!” “Well,” said the
haymaker, “I reckon I have about 2,000,000 acres.” “Two million acres!”
gasped the attorney, gazing round; “pray, where is it?” “Down yere,”
replied the farmer, pointing his long, skinny fingers at the ground. “I
have got a hundred acres on top, and I reckon I own about down to the
middle of the y’arth.” The man of the soil spake wiser than he knew. He
was rich, but not exactly in the way he imagined, for a granite quarry
of the finest kind was found on his land, which caused him to realize a
large sum.
862. STONE QUARRY.--Says a recent publication: “A man who has a quarry
of good building stone, easily accessible, is richer than if he owned a
gold mine.” But there are immense numbers of such quarries unworked and
even unsuspected. It is not too much to say that there are at least a
thousand farmers bemoaning unproductive land which contains beneath the
surface that which can make them richer than anything they can possibly
grow from the soil.
863. ARTIFICIAL STONE.--Many kinds of artificial stone are now employed,
such as Ransom’s concrete, Portland stone, etc. They are made by a
mixture of cement, sand and gravel, and are molded into blocks. The
value depends upon the kind of cement. No really good lime for this
purpose has yet been found in the United States. The man who can
discover a calcareous deposit capable of making a good, silicious or
argillaceous hydraulic lime will have the market for manufactured stone
practically in his hands.
864. BAKED BRICK.--Late improvements in baking brick have reduced the
time required to bake 100,000 bricks from fourteen to four days, and the
amount of fuel from forty cords of wood to sixteen. The following
suggestions by a brick-burner will show the path of fortune to those who
can reduce the time still further. Mix a little charcoal in the clay.
Double the length of the brick. If by either of these ways you can make
the bricks a trifle cheaper, while retaining their qualities, you have
acquired a fortune. “Lucky” Baldwin, a man afterward famous for his
mining and real estate speculations, made his first large money in
brick-burning. “I had no experience whatever then,” he said, “but I
studied up the subject, thoroughly mastered the details, and cleared
$1,500 in a month.”
865. GLASS BRICK.--Another new idea! Why not make a brick of glass,
partially hollow, so that, filled with rarefied air, it can be a
non-conductor of heat? Such a brick would be a great improvement on the
present method of constructing conservatories, greenhouses and the walls
of winter gardens. The plan is being tried in Europe, but there is no
patent on the introduction, and nothing to stop an American from
introducing a new kind of hothouse. The adage about the “man in a glass
house” may be realized yet.
866. RUBBER FLOORS.--Why do we go on in the old way, employing
rough-sounding and creaking flooring, when there is a material which
meets every want for a desirable floor? India rubber tiles prevent
slipping, emit no sound under the foot, and have the additional element
of an agreeable elasticity. It is a positive pleasure to walk on an
India rubber floor. It is, of course, more expensive than wood, but the
time is surely coming when every elegant dwelling, all expensive halls
and public buildings, as well as the saloon decks of our first-class
steamships, will have these improved floors. A man, ambitious to be rich
and possessing a few thousands of capital, could hardly do a better
thing than to manufacture rubber interlocking tiles, advertising them
extensively and exhibiting models to builders.