Manufactured Stones

Manufactured stones were used in building the Ship Canal at Port Said in the Mediterranean Sea.

The composition consisted of two parts of sand, and one of hydraulic lime: this was ground into paste, and poured into wooden moulds.

After the mixture solidified, the boards were removed, and the stone left in the sun from three to six months to dry. Each stone weighted twenty tons.

The Suez Canal is eighty-five miles long, seventy-two feet wide at the bottom, and three hundred and twenty-seven feet wide at the surface, and twenty-six feet deep throughout, and connects Europe and Asia.

It was opened Nov. 16, 1869, by a procession of English and foreign steamers, in the presence of the Khedive, the Emperor of France, the Emperor of Austria, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and others.

It cost pound 11,672,000, and the chief advantage gained is the shortening of the route from Europe to India.