stone (redirected from Carborundum stone)

stone, in weights and measures: see English units of measurement.

---

stone

In building construction, rock cut into blocks and slabs or broken into pieces. It comes as hard as granite and as soft as limestone or sandstone. Where available, stone has generally been the preferred material for monumental structures. Its advantages are durability, adaptability to sculpting, and the fact that it can be used in its natural state. But it is difficult to quarry, transport, and cut, and its weakness in tension limits its use. The simplest stonework is rubble, roughly broken stones bound in mortar. Ashlar work consists of regularly cut blocks with squared edges. Building stone is quarried by sawing if it is soft, and split apart with wedges or by blasting if hard. Many devices are used to shape and dress stone, from handheld tools to circular saws, surfacing machines, and lathes. Some stones are strong enough to act as monolithic (one-piece) supports and beams; and in some styles (e.g., ancient Egyptian temples) stone slabs are employed even for roofing, supported by many closely spaced columns. Before the arch, builders were handicapped by the tendency of stone to break under its own weight. But stone in compression has great strength, and the Romans built huge stone bridges and aqueducts. Though stone has generally been abandoned for structural use in the 20th century, it is widely used as a thin, nonbearing surface cladding. See also masonry.

---

stone

1. the hard compact nonmetallic material of which rocks are made

2. a small lump of rock; pebble

3. the woody central part of such fruits as the peach and plum, that contains the seed; endocarp

4. any similar hard part of a fruit, such as the stony seed of a date

5. Brit a unit of weight, used esp to express human body weight, equal to 14 pounds or 6.350 kilograms

6. the rounded heavy mass of granite or iron used in the game of curling

7. Pathol a nontechnical name for calculus

8. Rare (in certain games) a piece or man

9. any of various dull grey colours

10. made of stoneware

---

Stone

1. Oliver. born 1946, US film director and screenwriter: his films include Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), Nixon (1995), and Alexander (2004)

2. Sharon. born 1958, US film actress: her films include Basic Instinct (1991), Casino (1995), and Cold Creek Manor (2003)

---

stone [stōn]

(geology)

A small fragment of rock or mineral.

stony meteorite

(lapidary)

A cut and polished natural gemstone.

(mechanics)

A unit of mass in common use in the United Kingdom, equal to 14 pounds or 6.35029318 kilograms.

---

STONE - A Structured and Open Environment: a project supported by the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT) to design, implement and distribute a SEE for research and teaching.