MASON, a person employed under the direction of an architect, in the raising of a stone building.
The chief business of a mason is to make the mortar; raise the walls from the foundation to the top, with the necessary retreats and perpendiculars; to form the vaults, and employ the stones as delivered to him. When the stones are large, the business of hewing or cutting them belongs to the stonecutters, though these are frequently confounded with masons: the ornaments of sculpture are performed by carvers in stones or sculptors. The tools or implements principally used by them are the square, level, plumb line, bevel, compass, hammer, chisel, mallet, saw, trowel, &c. See SQUARE, &c.
Besides the common instruments used in the hand, they have likewise machines for raising of great burdens, and the conducting of large stones; the principal of which are the lever, pulley, wheel, crane, &c. See LEVER, &c.