Etzler, J. A. (John Adolphus). Paradise within the reach of all men
“The dwellings also ought to be very different from what is known, if
the full benefit of our means is to be enjoyed. They are to be of a
structure for which we have no name yet. They are to be neither
palaces, nor temples, nor cities, but a combination of all, superior to
whatever is known. Earth may be baked into bricks, or even vitrified
stone by heat,—we may bake large masses of any size and form, into
stone and vitrified substance of the greatest durability, lasting even
thousands of years, out of clayey earth, or of stones ground to dust,
by the application of burning mirrors. This is to be done in the open
air, without other preparation than gathering the substance, grinding
and mixing it with water and cement, moulding or casting it, and
bringing the focus of the burning mirrors of proper size upon the same.
The character of the architecture is to be quite different from what it
ever has been hitherto; large solid masses are to be baked or cast in
one piece, ready shaped in any form that may be desired. The building
may, therefore, consist of columns two hundred feet high and upwards,
of proportionate thickness, and of one entire piece of vitrified
substance; huge pieces are to be moulded so as to join and hook on to
each other firmly, by proper joints and folds, and not to yield in any
way without breaking.”
“Foundries, of any description, are to be heated by burning mirrors,
and will require no labor, except the making of the first moulds and
the superintendence for gathering the metal and taking the finished
articles away.”
Alas! in the present state of science, we must take the finished
articles away; but think not that man will always be a victim of
circumstances.
The countryman who visited the city and found the streets cluttered
with bricks and lumber, reported that it was not yet finished, and one
who considers the endless repairs and reforming of our houses, might
well wonder when they will be done. But why may not the dwellings of
men on this earth be built once for all of some durable material, some
Roman or Etruscan masonry which will stand, so that time shall only
adorn and beautify them? Why may we not finish the outward world for
posterity, and leave them leisure to attend to the inner? Surely, all
the gross necessities and economies might be cared for in a few years.
All might be built and baked and stored up, during this, the term-time
of the world, against the vacant eternity, and the globe go provisioned
and furnished like our public vessels, for its voyage through space, as
through some Pacific Ocean, while we would “tie up the rudder and sleep
before the wind,” as those who sail from Lima to Manilla.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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