Image HEIRLOOM TECHNOLOGY

By Tim Anderson

Carve a Stone Bowl

Make a gift to eternity in about two hours.

» Ever thought about trying to make something to last? It’s a hard problem: moths, rust, fire, thieves, and time versus the works of the mighty.

Take a walk through an old cemetery. The Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., is one of my favorites. Acid rain is dissolving some of the marble and limestone headstones so that you can’t even read them.

By contrast, bronze ornaments and plaques hundreds of years old look brand new. Unfortunately some of them are missing; they’ve been pried off by scavengers to sell for scrap. That’s not a new problem ...

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