bluestone

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bluestone

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From blue +‎ stone.

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bluestone (countable and uncountable, plural bluestones)

1. Any of several bluish-grey varieties of stone used for construction:
   • 2000, Laura Veltman, Living and Working in Australia: All you need to know for starting a new life ‘down under’, 7th edition, page 184:

     Its people are proud of their history and heritage of free settlement and the famous bluestone homes and public buildings of Adelaide are among the most orderly and best cared for examples of colonial architecture in the country.

   • 2006, John Emerson, History of the Independent Bar of South Australia‎^[1], page 23:

     Hanson Chambers, as 56 Carrington Street was eventually known, confirmed the tradition that the South Australian bar would develop as a series of small enclaves, more often than not in old, bluestone buildings dating back to the nineteenth century.

   • 2008, John Jenkin, William and Lawrence Bragg, Father and Son, unnumbered page:

     William rented the house on the corner of Lefevre Terrace and Tynte Street: a two-storey home of local bluestone with stuccoed enrichments, in high Victorian Italianate style.

   • 2009, Josephine Emery, The Real Possibility of Joy: A Personal Journey from Man to Woman, unnumbered page:

     Mackenzie Wool and Hide now exported leather products around the world and, in a roundabout manner, and along with my parents, was helping us buy our bluestone cottage in the Adelaide suburb of Unley.

   1. (UK) A form of dolerite which appears blue when wet or freshly broken.
   2. (UK) Any of the several (massive) kinds of non-local stone (particularly dolerite) used to construct Stonehenge.
   3. (US, Canada) A feldspathic sandstone found in the US and Canada.
   4. (US) A form of limestone found in the Shenandoah Valley and some other places.
   5. (Australia, New Zealand) A bluish-grey basalt or olivine basalt.
   6. (Australia, South Australia) Slate, such as comes from quarries in or near Adelaide.
2. Either of two related copper- and sulfur-based bright blue stones:
   1. Copper(II) sulfate, CuSO₄(H₂O)_x where x is 0-5, used as a coloring agent in glass-making and pottery and for other purposes.
      • 1924, Farmers' Bulletin, page 4:

        This consists of thoroughly spraying the plants with Bordeaux mixture once in ten days or two weeks after they have begun to run. Bordeaux mixture is made by bringing together the milk of lime and a solution of copper sulphate (bluestone).

      • 2001, Steve H. Dreistadt, Integrated Pest Management for Floriculture and Nurseries, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, →ISBN, page 92:

        Bordeaux mixture is a combination of bluestone (copper sulfate) and lime (calcium hydroxide).

      • 2006, Brian Cotnoir, The Weiser Concise Guide to Alchemy, Weiser Books, →ISBN:

        This is, however, one of those cases in which you can use the chemical copper sulphate to study the process and theory while you are hunting down some bluestone. Take bluestone or copper sulphate and dissolve it in heated distilled water, ...

   2. Chalcanthite, a water-soluble sulfate mineral, CuSO₄·5H₂O.
      • 1910, Colliery Engineer, page 89:

        This belt is about 1,000 feet wide at the McConnell Mine, and ends a few hundred yards north of the Bluestone. […] It was worked about 30 years ago, and for a time supplied natural bluestone (chalcanthite) to the amalgamating mills ...

      • 1949, The Canadian Mineralogist:

        […] of the mineral is a somewhat lighter shade of blue than that of bluestone (chalcanthite CuSOiSHjO).

      • 1951, The Desert Magazine:

        In some of the claims chalcanthite — or bluestone — was found in quantities that could be mined profitably. This ore formed the principal output of the area in the early days, being shipped to Virginia City to furnish the copper sulphate used in ...

      • 1966, Gems and Minerals:

        Very high-grade copper ore was produced including natural "bluestone" (chalcanthite) which was used in the silver mills of the Comstock.

3. Lapis lazuli, or its core constituent, lazurite.
   • 1892, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell, Littell's Living Age, page 23:

     From Cyprus were brought bricks of lead, with bluestone and elephant's tusks, and the vases were carved in fanciful designs, with the heads of goats, lions, bulls, and eagles.

   • 1898, Palestine Exploration Quarterly:

     […] but the “bluestone,” or lapis lazuli, was quarried by the Egyptians in the Sinaitic peninsula, and to these mines, perhaps, the author refers.

   • 1965, Aaron John Ihde, William Franklin Kieffer, Selected readings in the history of chemistry:

     Likewise, mineral analysis led him to the discovery of ultramarine or artificial lapis lazuli. […] Moreover, as should be noted, a so-called "Babel lazulite" was offered as tribute in addition to the genuine lapis lazuli or bluestone, and the Egyptians themselves manufactured this artificial lazulite.

   • 2013, William H. Peck, The Material World of Ancient Egypt, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN:

     Cedar from the Lebanon forests; lapis lazuli bluestone from sources as far away as Afghanistan; and ivory, ebony, [and] gold,  […]

• sarsen
• Stonehenge

bluestone (third-person singular simple present bluestones, present participle bluestoning, simple past and past participle bluestoned)

1. (transitive) To treat or dose with copper sulfate.
   • 1948, The Tasmanian Journal of Agriculture, volumes 19-22, page 20:

     Bluestoning at any time of the year will destroy a number of snails […]

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