NIST’s Wall of Many Stones

March 7, 2023 12:35 PM

On a secluded part of the NIST campus in Gaithersburg, MD, is a large stone wall. But it’s not just any stone wall, it is the Wall of Many Stones, a long running stone weathering experiment. Can’t get enough stones? There is a searchable catalog where you can explore the stones from your home state ( and some countries)
posted by rockindata (21 comments total)

Checking my state, they were apparently very interested in testing Virginia Greenstone.

Very cool post, thank you.
posted by tavella at 1:21 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

That is a gorgeous piece of functional art. It is experiment and testament.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:25 PM on March 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Very cool. Thanks.
posted by Splunge at 1:37 PM on March 7, 2023

Very cool! But it appears they have both a north and south side to the wall with different stones on each. As any outdoorsperson knows, the north side and south side of anything are exposed to very different amounts of sunlight and all sorts of different conditions arising from from that fact. I don’t see how they compensated for that. It seems to me a north-south orientation would be better. I’m also interested to know how they transported the wall intact from Washington DC to Gaithersburg in 1976.
posted by TedW at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

If this kind of thing is your jam, and you live in the Portland, OR metro area. Consider a geologic walking tour the downtown area as detailed in "Walls Worth Walking By". Some of the featured walls are gone now, but many survive.

Some samples of walls that are also in the NIST collection are:

The Teninio sandstone on the walls of the St. James Lutheran church.

The Cold Springs granite on the Wells Fargo tower and State office building and the Amazon Elemental building, which also has Indiana limestone (either 12LB35 or 12RA1 on its face.
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:54 PM on March 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

So interesting! I was also pleased to see that a stone with fossils is included :)
posted by lepus at 2:00 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I in particular enjoyed the close-up of the sandstone nugget.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 3:20 PM on March 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I’m also interested to know how they transported the wall intact from Washington DC to Gaithersburg in 1976.

Looking at the pictures of the whole thing, there's a joint down the middle that goes through the middle of some blocks. I would guess "intact" is more "we cut it into two pieces (and possibly also divided it at cement lines horizontally as well) for transport then cemented it back together".
posted by tavella at 3:40 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Eponysterical! Woot!

Also: great post, thank you for sharing. Adding a wall visit to my bucket list. I'm so glad that NIST exists. :)
posted by ZakDaddy at 4:05 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

The wall is only 12m long and 4m high. It would fit on a standard low bed trailer and could be jacked up like houses are for loading and unloading. Or a crane could have been employed.

The centre line might be the join between the right hand lime mortar and the left hand Portland cement mortar that the wall was originally built with.
posted by Mitheral at 4:05 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hmm, that would make sense too. And it probably weighs only around 40 tons, which a semitrailer can carry.
posted by tavella at 4:46 PM on March 7, 2023

If this kind of thing is your jam, and you live in or are visiting the Chicago area, stop by the old Chicago Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue. There are around 150 fragments of various things embedded in the street level walls.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:21 PM on March 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ugh! I've been to NIST and had no idea. But if you go, I would recommend a stop at Glenstone for a whole bunch of different rock walls!
posted by armacy at 7:28 PM on March 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

NIST rocks.
posted by clew at 7:49 PM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I want to go to there
posted by Going To Maine at 10:47 PM on March 7, 2023

That is fantastically beautiful in photos. I would love to see it in person.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:28 AM on March 8, 2023

What an interesting find! I looked up my state, California, and was surprised to not find an example of our state rock: Serpentine. But it wasn't declared our state rock until the 60s so perhaps that explains it. It is also a source of asbestos, but they certainly didn't care about that when the wall was constructed. It is a very pretty rock.
posted by agatha_magatha at 8:49 AM on March 8, 2023

Portland, OR metro area. Consider a geologic walking tour

GSOC offers guided walking tours occasionally.

I have collected interesting rocks from all over the US west and use them to decorate my front yard. Typically basketball-sized. Since I know how old each rock is, I get to appreciate the varying speeds of weathering of different rock types. [My inspiration for collecting the largest rocks I can manage to haul and placing them all over my yard is from Harley Bretz.]
posted by neuron at 9:40 AM on March 8, 2023

This is brilliant. What an artistic lens to apply to science. I loved this bit of information:
And every single stone sample was meticulously set by one mason, Vincent Di Benedeto, working all by himself.
I gotta say, that's not a bad legacy to leave behind.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:25 AM on March 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

The wall is cool, the people who did the cataloguing are cool, the people who did the website are cool, the people who cut and provided the stone samples are cool. All too cool!
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:48 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

In the catalogue some of the rocks also have archival pictures so you can see that yes those rocks were flat and smooth to start with.
posted by ockmockbock at 6:50 PM on March 8, 2023 [1 favorite]