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Staff is a kind of artificial stone used for covering and ornamenting buildings. It is made chiefly of powdered gypsum or plaster of Paris, with a little cement, glycerin, and dextrine, mixed with water until it is about as thick as molasses, when it may be cast in molds into any shape. To strengthen it coarse cloth or bagging, or fibers of hemp or jute, are put into the molds before casting. It becomes hard enough in about a half hour to be removed and fastened on the building in construction. Staff may easily be bent, sawed, bored, or nailed. Its natural color is murky white, but it may be made to resemble any kind of stone.
Staff was invented in France about 1876 and was used in the construction and ornamentation of the buildings of the Paris Expositions of 1878 and of 1889. It was also largely used in the construction of the buildings of the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago in 1893, at the Omaha and Buffalo Expositions in 1898 and 1901, and at later expositions and on temporary buildings of other kinds.
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