JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 218

When we think today of irreplaceable aspects of technical society
electricity and petroleum loom large as the juice of progress.  These
“irreplaceables” have hanged greatly over time, with perhaps one of the
most benign being the simple grindstone.  These images (below) from The Scientific American of 7 April 1866 show
work at the quarry of F.M. Stearns & Co. of Cuyahuga County, Ohio
(near Cleveland), and located n the Cleveland, Columbus &
Cincinnati Railroad.  These round disks were cut out of the earth here
in 2 foot and 200 foot (long) sections which were 6 inches and 6 feet
thick.  The grindstone was an absolute necessity in just about every
corner of commerce, almost all of which is gone or replaced, today.
What really gave me pause wasn’t the image of the quarrying of the
stones or the cutting of their eyes or their shaping–it was the
packaging.  How awesome is it to think of packing up ten 400-pounders into a wooden barrel?  A barrel full of grindstones, one after the other, filling a railway car, with car after call of them, sending them out into the country in their dense inertness. I can just about smell the Progress in those cars.
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