The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-08
Saving Marble.

Historical society, January 20, 1884:
The proposition to inscribe upon tab
let, to be placed in our new Town hall,
the names of such citizens of Middlebury
as have benefited the world by their in
ventions, gives new interest to an old
discussion regarding the invention of the
art of saving marble by water power.
Few persons have been in Middlebury
any great length of time without having
been assured, from some source, that to
our town is due the process of saving
blocks of marble into slabs; or, If
marble was not here first cut by saws of
soft iron andesand, that at all events our
place has the right to claim that here
was invented the process of cutting by
water power.
Before making the inscriptions referred
to it will be well to go carefully over the
matter, learning what has been done in
former times, and reaching a safe con-
clusion as to what may be justly claimed
as inventions by our own citizens. 1t is
the purpose of this writing to bring to-
gether some facts that will aid in reach
ing q proper conclusion. The data. with
the exception of the most ancient, have
been gathered mostly by Mr.. Philip Bat
tell.
Let us go to the records. Pliny. the
elder, lived in the first century of the
Christian era, dying by sulfocation at
the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius,
A. ID. 70, Turning to his Natural His
tory, Book 81. chapter Z, and making
free use of DR.. Philemon Hollands trans
latlon bearing date 1901, we may read:
LAS touching the manner of Sitting
marble into thin plates. Herewith to
pnynr nn1 COIL IL NVnrp tlp Ont lido Of
walls, | wot not whether the invention
is from Caria or no. The palace of Maui
solus, king of Caria, built at IIaicar-
nassus, is the most ancient building | can
find in any record; garnshed, set out
and enriched with the marble of Procon-
nesus, Notwithstanding all the walls were
of brick
The mausoleum built by his queen to
his memory was erected 1853 b. &.
Pliny further quotes from Cornelius
Nepos that Marmurra. a gentleman of
Rome and sometime provost over the
pioneers. masons. smiths and carpenters.
under Caesar in France, was the first
among the Romans who covered the
walls throughout his house, which he
had upon Mount Cnlius, with leaves of
MARBLE"
After relating many other instances of
the use of sawn marble. and repeating
the statement that he did not know the
origin of the invention. he proceeds to a
description of the method of saving
But would you know the manner of
saving the marble L! 1t is done with a
kind of sand, and yet a man would think
it was done by the saw alone. After II
small line is made they strow sand along
the whole length. then they set the saw
to it. and by drawing to and fro the sand
under the teeth makes way downwards.
and so the stone, hard as it is, is speedily
cut through. For this purpose the Eth
Opian sand has no equal. Sand from In
dia is commended for a second place, but
the Ethiopian is softer and better, for
that sand cuts smooth and clean as it
goes, and leaves no trace at all in the
work. The Indian sand does not make
so even and nice plates. With this sand
however, when it is calclned, they rub
their slabs and make them smooth. If
it is not calcined to fine powder it is of
itself rough, which also is the fault of
the sand that comes from NaXos and
Coptis, which is commonly called Egyp-
tian sand, for these sands were used in
old time for cutting marble.
"Afterwards they found a sand. as
| ~
gulf of Venice, which being left bare
when the tide has gone out. one may
easily see has been thrown up by the
water.
And now our sawyers of marble make
no more ado, but take the first sand they
come to; this serves their turn well
enough. But this coarse sand makes Il
wide slit and leaves the slabs rough, thus
causing a loss of marble. 1t requires
much labor in polishing then, too.
leaves the plates slight and thin. To
conclude, the sand that comes from
Thebais, in upper Egypt, is excellent to
polish with"
Thus far Pliny, in regard to the early
method of working marble.
Turning now to History of Inven-
tions, written by John Beckmann. pro-
fessor in the University of Goettingen
from l7G6 through the rest of that cen
Jury, we may read in his article on saw
mills of the various forms of saws, and
then this passage;
The most beneficial and ingenious
improvement of this instrument was
without doubt the invention of saw mills
which were driven either by water or
wind. Mills of the first kind were erected
So early rs the fOarH century in Germany
on the small river Roer; for though An
sonius speaks properly of ,catcr-mdIs for
cutting stone and not timber. it cannot be
doubted that these were invented later
than mills for manufacturing deals or
that both kinds were erected ut the same
time. The art of cutting marble with a
saw is very old"
Here Beckmann quotes from Pliny to
substantiate his statement. He goes on
to say, " have, however. found no ac-
count in any of the Greek or Roman
writers of mill for saving wood; and
as the writers of modern times speak of
saw-mills as new and uncommon. ii
would seem that the oldest construction
of them has been forgotten, or that some
important improvement has made them
appear entirely new
Now, leaving Beckmann, who seems to
establish the fact that marble was sawn
by water-power in the fourth century of
the Christian era, we will look to the
statements recently obtained bearing up
on the use of the same power in our own
period and more directly upon the ques.
ton in hand. The inquiry has been made
upon the line of that remarkable geolop.