The Port Gibson Herald, And Correspondent

A Stone-Cutting Machine—A New Invention.—A correspondent of the National Intelligencer gives this account of the recent invention of a stone-cutting machine propelled by steam, and capable of doing the labor of one hundred men:

The cutting instrument is simply a half-dozen circular saws, fastened firmly by an axle running through the centre. These saws of course are made very hard, and the teeth rather larger than the ordinary size. When firmly adjusted it is forced rapidly over the surface of the stone, smoothing it very evenly. As yet only one of these machines has been constructed, which is now in operation at New Haven, Ct., cutting all the stones required (in a short time) in the construction of the large depot of the New York and New Haven Railroad. The inventor is Charles Wilson, but the principal owner is Charles T. Shelton, Esq., a lawyer of much distinction and great enterprise, of New York city. A number of rights for States and cities, I understand, have been taken. The late lamented Hon. Dixon H. Lewis was on his way to see it when he died suddenly in New York. It is not too much to suppose that when this machine gets into general use it will to a great extent supercede the use of bricks. For the expeditious construction of public works it will be invaluable. A second machine, of greater power and finish, is now in progress of construction, and will shortly be put up in New York city for public exhibition. Its power has been tried on the hardest stone, (brought by a gentleman from Ohio for the special purpose of testing it,) and it afforded the best evidence of its usefulness, dressing the stone as smoothly as if it had been marble.