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[Ascii Kid]

As a sudjestion for the problem of having WAY too much stone laying around, why not have a furnace that converts them to slag, which you can then stockpile into heaps of by the hundred.  I'm not sure if slag has any redemable value, but it would make for a nice enviromental problem to deal with.

[G-Flex]

Honestly, I don't see how this is much better than producing block, which you can already stack ten-per-bin. Slag would be messier and more difficult to handle, I would think.

Also, you would have to assume that dwarves have the capacity to melt down every single type of rock they come across and turn it into generic sludge.

[Teldin]

I'd rather have a rock grinder that can convert them into sand.

[Idiom]

I'd rather turn them all into trinkets with ridiculous value, then lure in foolish thieves. Wait, I already can.

[Yanlin]

I'd rather have a rock grinder that can convert them into sand.

Hooray for glass on no sand maps?

[Neonivek]

I'd rather have a rock grinder that can convert them into sand.

Hooray for glass on no sand maps?

That defies the law of Chemistry

[Cavalcadeofcats]

What, turning rock into sand? Yeah, sounds totally implausible to me too.

[Derakon]

The problem with grinding rock into sand is that the sand you use to make glass is heavy in silicon, while the rock dust you'd get from grinding, in most cases, would not be.

[Draco18s]

The problem with grinding rock into sand is that the sand you use to make glass is heavy in silicon, while the rock dust you'd get from grinding, in most cases, would not be.

Granite?  Sure.  Orthoclase?  Sure.  Basalt?  No.  Schist?  No.

There are a number of high-silica content rocks, but not ALL of them.

[Silverionmox]

A quick check learns that granite, olivine and gabbro consist mostly of silicon dioxide. Silicon is the most common element in the upper crust after all. I don't think that it's implausible to get sand with impurities from common rocks, more than good enough for green glass. White sand, or pulverized quartzite should even be good enough for clear glass without the need for pearlash.

Maybe we could have basic categories for sand that mirror the rock types (granite sand, quartz sand, basalt sand, etc.) and only use the colour categories as soon as they are mixed up, after which only the color matters anyway - they would have become too impure for use in magic rituals etc.

[G-Flex]

To those who don't know how sand/glass production works:
You can't just melt whatever rock and turn it into everyday window glass.

Sure, technically melting anything down and freezing it quickly enough will form a "glass", but only the phase-of-matter since, not the sense we're talking about.

Glass is produced from silicon dioxide, which is the main constituent of sand.

Even 70-something percent SO2 rock (like granite) might be fairly infeasible for glass. At any rate, grinding up rock is going to give you smaller rock. You aren't going to magically turn it into anything, or else glass production wouldn't need to involve sand at all; you could just throw a bunch of rocks into the furnace.

So no, common rocks aren't going to get you enough silica. Seriously, how do you even expect dwarves to purify it from the resulting dust? It would be completely implausible.

[Neonivek]

I guess the Alchemist could turn rocks into sand via magic...

[catpaw]

That defies the law of Chemistry

Whats an alchemist laboratory good for, other than defing the laws of chemistry?


Other than that, tranforming rock into sand *is* possible, that is how nature formed our sand first place... likely through water waves grinding rock over and over for millions of years..

Its also possible with 21th century tech, see here:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/06/24/stories/2002062401161300.htm

but don't ask me, how dwarves could possibly do that...

[G-Flex]

Other than that, tranforming rock into sand *is* possible, that is how nature formed our sand first place... likely through water waves grinding rock over and over for millions of years..

The point is that it's certain KINDS of rock. You can't just grind up any old rock and get usable sand for glassmaking.

[Othob Rithol]

Man, you guys yanked this one off topic by the third post!

I don't get the idea of a rock furnace either. Am I going to waste fuel to melt the rocks down? So I have to chop a tree, haul it, burn it, haul the rock to a furnace, melt it, and haul it to a stockpile to avoid hauling it to a stockpile? Or is it a magma furnace...in which case why don't I just drop the rock in the magma?

And off-topic:

Could we at least have the option to grind up the rocks that are high Si0₂ content? It would sure make up for the fact that sand is awfully rare for some odd reason.

And even more off-topic:
Reminds me of a joke a former East German FH professor told me:

What happens when you found a socialist country in the desert?

• Nothing at first, but after a few years a sand shortage develops.