AbstractsEarth & Environmental Science

"Firestone is a natural occurring silica rock which is cut up into brick and shapes and used for lining cupolas. This rock is found in the east, mostly in Pennsylvania. It is dense, having a porosity of 5.6% raw and 16% after firing to cone 18. Its volume expansion upon firing was calculated to be 19.2%. Its appearance shows that it is evidently fine grained silica bonded with a small amount of clay and siliceous cement. This rock has such desirable characteristics for use in cupola linings that it would be of great importance to duplicate this rock synthetically in the laboratory. A careful survey of the literature revealed no published information bearing directly on this subject. Thus it was necessary to make a very elementary beginning. Several different mixes were tried in an effort to find a desirable mix that we might base our work upon. This paper gives in detail the work, and results obtained by the writer in his effort to produce Firestone synthetically in the laboratory" – Introduction, leaf 1.