Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-08-11
MARBLE.

The quarTying and manufacture of
marble is one of the leading indus
tries of our state. Some of the rich
est veins of this most beautiful stone
to be found in the country. are locat-
ed ON Vermont soil. At Pittsford,
Rutland, Isle La Note, Malletts
Bay, and less extensively in other
places marble of the finest quality is
quarried, and shipped to all parts of
the world. Indeed, the Vermont
marbles are famous wherever this
stone is used, and many dealers find
difficulty in obtaining a sufficient
amount of it to fill their orders. A
brief description of the different kinds
of marble found in the state, the
method of quarrying, and the process
of manufacturing into tiling, panels,
building material and cemetery work,
may not be uninteresting to our read
ers.
The Pittsford is among the best in
the country. 1t varies in color from
pure white to deep blue, often beau
tifully mottled, some with white and
some with very dark, almost black,
veins. 1t is exceedingly popular for
all kinds of ornamental and cemetery
work. A remarkable quality of
marble has lately been discovered at
Isle La Motte-the place where so
much fine building stone is quarried.
The marble is beautiful blue and
black formation, and is coming into
extensive use for building and floor
tiling. A fine gray limestone is also
worked at Isle La Motto, for building
and cemetery purposes. The Rutland
marbles are too well known to need
any introduction. They vary from
white to deep blue in color, are ap-
parently inexhaustible, and are the
seat of some of the largest quarries
and marble works on the continent.
Wherever building or cemetery work
is done in marble, the beautiful Rut-
land stone is in great demand. The
Malletts Bay marble-of especial in
terest to Burlingtonians from its vi
cinity-is a superior, durable and
very handsome stone of various col
ors, mostly chocolate, pink and red.
1t is very fine grained and hard, and
susceptible of an extremely high
polish, which makes it particularly
suitable for ornamental and decora-
tive work.
The method of quarrying marble
is very different from that which is
employed in quarrying ordinary
building stone. No explosives are
used, and nothing of the nature of
blasting enters into the process.
Marble always lies in perfectly even
layers, superimposed upon each other
in the same plane, like the leaves of
book. The layers are of different
colors, within the range of variation
of the deposit, and often of different
qualities. They may lie parallel to
the surface of the ground, or slant
at every angle, from the very slight
est to an angle of % degrees. The
quarrying is all done by steam ma
chinery. The first process is per-
formed by the gadding machine,
which consists of comb-like row of
diamond drills, placed close together,
and worked with boring motion by
the machine to which they are at
tached. There drills are just the
length of the depth of the block or
layer to be sawed out, and are work.
ed until the layer is thoroughly per-
forated. The channelling machine
is made up of long rows of drills
with serrated steel points, which phys
up and down and cut channel the
depth of the length of the blocks to