The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-08
OUARRYING GRANITE.
WHERE THE STONE COMES FROM
AND HOW DISCOVERED.
Swimming of Sod and Soil and Blasting
Out a Ledge-SpIittinS the stone-Pav-
ing Granite-Red Granite of Aberdeen,


ing Granite-Red Granite of Aberdeen,
Scotland.
A reporter III an interview with an old
time contractor obtained the following infor-
nation in regard to granite: an the first
place, granite appears to be the fundamental
rock of the earth's crust and is nearly always
found in its perfect state in mountainous
regions To be sure, it is occasionally found
as the superficial rock in fiat or rolling
plains, but most always is found in hills and
mountains. 1t is the hardest to get at of any
of the more valuable of the building rocks,
but when uncovered and opened up is COM
paratively easy TO work into rough shapes,
but polishing is another matter"
"How is il discovered!'
Generally it crops out on the face of
cliff high up on a hill or mountain, hundreds
of feet above convenient avenues of travel.
The first thing to be done is TO climb up and
skin the quarry-that is, strip OFF sod and
soil and blast out ledge for the workmen.
Then they hunt for seams and assures to lessen
the work of blasting. Sometimes acres upon
acres have to be skinned before n single seam
or crack can be found. But when they find
a seam they have half solved the problem of
quarrying, because the seams show which
way the granite will work most easily"
"Then granite has grain."
SPLITTING THE STONE.
"Yes, n sort of grain-enough, anyhow, to
make it split accurately by proper manipula-
ton. Frequently the seams traverse In par
alleI lines, in which cases the workman has
a comparative picnic. First he drills long
rows of holes from three and half inches to
ten feet in depth and from five to ten inches
apart"
Then he blasts it out and that's all there is
of it"
Scarcely. When he has drilled around n
section ten or twenty feet wide by forty to
eighty long he takes lot of half round irons,
pointed like the drills, and sets them the
holes in pairs, fat sides together, of course.
Next he sets in his feathers which are moth
ing but small, slender, and very tough steel
wedges. He goes along with light hammer
and begins driving in his wedges with equal
force, so that the strain increases evenly all
along the line. Pretty soon there is sharp
report and the big granite rectangle jumps
up out of its bed with deep hollow on its
under surface, there being no means of get
ting at the bottom center with half rounds
and feathers
rs the granite then hauled to the cities TO
be worked up!p
mo. Do you suppose they have derricks
up there on the mountains big enough to lift
1900 or 5000 tons: The same process is re-
newed along the grain to break the stone
into long strips, and it is then broken apart
laterally by sharp tools and hammers. OF
course there is enormous waste, but when
granite is found at all there is generally an
abundance of it, so it isn't much of an object
to save it. The difficulty in working it is
what makes it cost. The granite blocks used
in these streets are worked down from the
great rectangular masses just as | have said"
OUR PAVING GRANITE.
"Where does our paving granite come from,
10 be definite."
"Rockport and Quincy, Mass, and the coast
of Maine are furnishing the most of what we
are using here; but fine paving and building
granite is found in the Thousand islands and
in New Brunswick"
How is it shipped:'
pretty much as its laid on the sidewalks,
only not i'll as great bulk. \ box car will
hold 200 blocks, which are worth only about
$l20 car. So you see the railroads get
mighty fat thing out of the transportation, n
compared with the value of the stuff"
"Where is the finest granite found
aberdeen, Scotland. That is the red gran
tie, which is full of quartz 1t takes on a
magnificent polish, but you've probably no.
ticed that they don't carve it deliberately. If
a man wants a monument of Scotch granite
to hold his cadaver down he must be satisfied
with very quiet designs. But it holds its
sharp edges, when they're once on, for ages
almost. The Egyptians had the granite
business down to a finer point than any other
people on the round earth. They weren't sat
isfied with shining it up, but they carved it
and worked it as a baker works gingerbread.
another thing the people don't generally
know is that many of the so-called precious
stones nothing but quartz, one of the
principal constituents of granite. Agate,
amethyst, carnelian, catSeye, chalcedony,
geode and jasper are all quartz formations,
and our pleasure traps and garbage carts are
trundling over acres of such rubbish every
day. Science found way 20 counterfeit
these stones in paste, though, just about the
same time she discovered how common is the
natural article, SO that the market is surfeited
with both, and neither is wanted Brazilian
pebble spectacles are made from quartz and
California diamonds, when not artificial, are
worked from large, clear masses Of quartz,
which are found in Madagascar."-C iucin-
natl Sun.