The following is a process of manufacture in which the alkaline silicates prepared industrially are employed.

The function of the alkaline silicates, or soluble glass, as constituents of artificial stone, is to act as a cement, forming with the alkaline earths, alumina, and oxide of lead, insoluble silicates, which weld together the materials (quartz sand, pebbles, granite, fluorspar, and the waste of clay bricks). The mass may be colored black by the addition of a quantity of charcoal or graphite to the extent of 10 per cent at the maximum, binoxide of manganese, or ocher; red, by 6 per cent of colcothar; brick red, by 4 to 7 per cent of cinnabar; orange, by 6 to 8 per cent of red lead; yellow, by 6 per cent of yellow ocher, or 5 per cent of chrome yellow; green, by 8 per cent of chrome green; blue, by 6 to 10 per cent of Neuwied blue, Bremen blue, Cassel blue, or Napoleon blue; and white, by 20 per cent, at the maximum, of zinc white.

Chrome green and zinc oxide produce an imitation of malachite. An imitation of lapis lazuli is obtained by the simultaneous employment of Cassel blue and pyrites in grains. The metallic oxides yield the corresponding silicates, and zinc oxide, mixed with cleansed chalk, yields a brilliant marble. The ingredients are mixed in a kind of mechanical kneading trough, furnished with stirrers, in variable proportions, according to the percentage of the solution of alkaline silicate. The whole is afterwards molded or compressed by the ordinary processes.

The imitation of granite is obtained by mixing lime, 100 parts; sodium silicate (42° Be.), 35 parts; fine quartz sand, 120 to 180 parts; and coarse sand, 180 to 250 parts.

Artificial basalt may be prepared by adding potassium sulphite and lead acetate, or equal parts of antimony ore and iron filings.

To obtain artificial marble, 100 pounds of marble dust or levigated chalk are mixed with 20 parts of ground glass and 8 parts of fine lime and sodium silicate. The coloring matter is mixed in proportion depending on the effect to be produced.

A fine product for molding is obtained by mixing alkaline silicate, 100 parts; washed chalk, 100 parts; slaked lime, 40 parts; quick lime, 40 parts, fine quartz sand, 200 parts; pounded glass, 80 parts; infusorial earths, 80 parts; fluorspar, 150 parts. On hardening, there is much contraction.

Other kinds of artificial stone are prepared by mixing hydraulic lime or cement, 50 parts; sand, 200 parts; sodium silicate, in dry powder, 50 parts; the whole is moistened with 10 per cent of water and molded.

A hydraulic cement may be employed, to which an alkaline silicate is added. The stone or object molded ought to be covered with a layer of fluosilicate.

A weather-proof water-resisting stone is manufactured from sea mud, to which 5 per cent of calcic hydrate is added. The mass is then dried, lixiviated, and dried once more at 212° F., whereupon the stones are burned. By an admixture of crystallized iron sulphate the firmness of these stones is still increased.