Abstract

There is provided an artificial stone for strengthening traffic surfaces in the open, in which the stone, in order to provide wide grooves between adjacently laid stones, is provided on its edge surfaces with integrally formed, completely identical spacer elements, the contacting free end surfaces of the spacer elements having, adjacent one another, a tooth and a recessed contact surface for the tooth of the adjacently laid stone; the tooth-recess sequence, in one peripheral direction of the stone, being the same for all spacer elements; the effective length of the individual edge surfaces of a stone, parallel to the laying plane, being the same as, or a whole-number multiple of, a smallest effective length; each edge surface segment which has the smallest effective length being provided with a spacer element; and the central axes of all spacer elements lying in the middle of the corresponding edge surface segment. The contact surface is formed as a tooth recess corresponding to the size of the tooth and enclosing the latter on both sides in the direction parallel to the laying plane and to the corresponding edge surface. The flanks of thee tooth and of the tooth recess enclose an angle of at least 90 degrees, and the bisector of the angle is essentially parallel to a perpendicular drawn to the corresponding edge surface.