The business was carried on the first season under the management of Mr. John McClave, a master stone-cutter, and the second season under the management of the firm of Brown & Young, stone-cutters. Mr. Hugh Young, of this firm, has since been prominent in the stone-cutting business in New York. The machine was found to possess a remarkable advantage over hand work. The sun was called by stone-cutters “the great revealer.” When its rays fell at a small angle on a surface finished by hand they showed very considerable irregularities. The same test showed work in the machine to be true planes. It won a high reputation; stone-cutters were anxious to get their surfaces done in the machine, and we had more work offered us than we could do. The following incident illustrates the favorable impression made by the machine upon everyone who witnessed its operation: At a meeting of the Directors of the Company at which I was present Mr. Daniel S. Miller, a gentleman somewhat prominent in financial New York, was late. He made the following explanation. “I thought that before the meeting I would visit the stone yard and see how the work was going on. I stayed longer than I had intended, and I want five thousand dollars more of the stock of this company.” We were much elated over our success, and plans were made for enlarging the business. I completed the drawings for an additional machine, wide enough to take in platforms, for which provision had been made by me in the plan of the building. The only change suggested by our two years’ experience was the use of air-cushions behind the hammers in place of steel springs. But the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, the poet tells us, “Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy.” Our plans were suddenly ruined. A change in the method of facing ashlar was introduced and soon became universally adopted. Instead of being faced by hand, it began to be sawn out of large blocks. I have since wondered why this had not been done long before. Blocks of marble had been sawn into slabs by gang-saws no one knows how long, and all that had to be done was to apply the same system to blocks of building-stone. It was found to cost no more to saw ashlar than it had done to split it out at the quarry. All the cost of facing and much stone were saved. Our stone-cutting machine became useless, and I learned that disappointments were not confined to the legal profession. The speed of 300 revolutions per minute had proved to be admirably suited for the machine. Familiarity with this speed in the running of the stone-dressing machine made me alive to the value of high rotative speeds in all cases to which they are adapted. In looking back over this period I see that the success of the stone-dressing machine was due to the following causes: First, I went about the work of facing stone by machinery in the natural way.