Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The water which is mechanically held between the particles of a newly quarried rock, and which gradually disappears by evaporation when this is kept from exposure to the weather. A part of this water only disappears after the rock has been heated to the boiling-point, and this is usually called
hygroscopic moisture . The quantity of quarry-water held by rocks varies greatly in amount, according to their composition and texture. Some rocks which are so soft that they can be cut with a saw or chisel when freshly quarried become much harder after exposure to the air for a few weeks.
Examples
“Observations of this kind led Kuhlman to investigate the cause, and he believes that the hardening of rocks is not owing solely to the evaporation of quarry-water, but that it depends upon the tendency which all earthy matters possess to undergo a spontaneous crystallization by slow dessication, which commences the moment the rock is exposed to the air.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 27, June, 1873
“Soft and working well with the axe while it retains the quarry-water, it soon hardens by exposure; and, thus weathered, it forms the best and ugliest of the local building materials.”
To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Volume I
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