Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/626

 502 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Feb., as the hoisting-rope is held "taut," the levers, to which it is attached, are drawn away from the racks, and the machine operates freely ; but the instant the hoisting-rope breaks, or is slackened suddenly from any cause, the weight of the cage and its load comes upon the counterbalance ropes, the levers in- stantly engage with the racks, and the descent of the cage is prevented. There is no possibility of the device getting out of order, and ceasing to operate, without, at once, so interfering with the proper use of the hoist, as to call atten- tion to the fact. A large machine is in operation at the works of Merrick & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., and a working model may be seen at their office, 62 Broadway, New York city. Further information may be obtained by ad- dressing the patentees, at either place. MASONRY. WHO ever bestows a thought on the wonderful testimonials of mental and manual effort which the mason has filled the world with, and gives the cxexlit due to that craft ? The magnificent ruins of ancient times, the modern glories of our own, are alike the work of the mason. The design is always justly accredited to the architect, but he who carries the require- ments of that design into execution is surely entitled to a little acknowledg- ment. How often has it happened that the skill of the mason has saved the very reputation of the architect, by pro- viding for some unforeseen point of weakness, or other defect. Yet the mason's modest worth is buried in ob- livion, whilst the architect's fame is emblazoned on the history of his work to live whilst a stone remains of the con- struction. In fact, the casual loss of the name of the architect is said to be almost equal to the incompletion of the work of Cologne Cathedral, and actually drew forth the powers of fiction in a legend to account for the missing name. Yet, the diligent inquirer into the his- torical relations of buildings will assign a high place in his inquiry to the busi- ness of the mason. It would be difficult, indeed, to mention any other business so closely connected with the progress of our race to which science and art are so much indebted — to which religion itself owes so many of its nobler in- fluences. The mason has joined to- gether in one unbroken chain, the two extremes of civilization. His genius is alike conspicuous in the rudely sculp- tured pillar of the Cromlech and the exquisitely proportioned column of the Parthenon. He built the altars from which arose the smoke of human sacri- fice, and he reared the temples in which no sacrifice is offered but that to the true God — the offering of a Christian heart. Centuries before the dawn of civilization in the empires of the West of Europe he constructed those monu- ments of rude but magnificent grandeur which moulder now upon the banks of the Ganges and the Nile. It M'as he who reared the stately temples of Minerva and Jupiter, which were so in- separably associated with all that was noble in Grecian philosophy — all that was beautiful in Grecian Art. And, in the dark ages which followed the down- fall of western civilization in Europe, when the temples of Rome were ruined, the palaces of the Caasars plundered, the Pantheon despoiled, the amphitheatres laid waste, it was he who reared up the noble piles of Christian Architecture, which ushered in a new era in the his- tory of the world, and another and a more beneficent period of human exist- ence. The relics of Palmj'ra's former grandeur, and of Baalbec's greatness, still linger to attest the wonderful skill of the masons of those days. And not a vestige of a temple, or arch of triumph, but acts as a chronicler of the deeds of those artisans whose names are lost, though the yet distinct marks of their work still live as a mockery of fame.