The Opelousas courier., 1890-08-09
WORK In A SLATE QUARRY,
PROCESSES BY WHICH SLATE is
PREPARED FOR MARKET:
The Quarries Are Great Holes III the
Ground-Cutting Up Huge Slate
RIacks-Uses of Slate.

The Quarries Are Great Holes III the
Ground-Cutting Up Huge Slate
Blecks-Uses of Slate.
Bangor, Penn, is the centre of the
Delaware River slate region. All about
the town are evidences that it is the
place 10 find slate in all its pristine
beauty. Sidewalks are made of slate,
houses are invariably rooted with it,
lsrgg buildings are Trimmed with it, and
actually many of them are built OF BRICK
which is made from the refuss OF the
quarries, where engines arg constantly
thrubbing and putting, great blasts OF
powder and dynamite are exploding. and
men are working diligently, for theirs is
plenty to be done, and at this season no
time should be wasted.
The slate q~uarries are great holes or
pits in the ground, reaching down some
times to a depth of $50 feet. The slate
is q distance of several feet below the
surface, so that it is a matter Of heavy
expense to clear away the top covering
and get at the valuable article. The
best Slate is not found even at the top OF
the deposits, but deeper down. 1t lies
in strata; which are divided into
beds by "ribbons" or dark-colored
marks running through the blocks.
What these ribbons are and
what has caused them, even the best
skaters are unable to say. They are no
harder or softer than the ordinary slate,
neither are they regular, and in direction
they are a law unto themselves. AS the
richer deposits are found, new beds are
discovered at the side. and so at the same
time each quarry is producing both the
better and the poorer kinds of slate. The
large blocks being blasted and picked
from the beds, are hoisted by means OF
tremendous derricks to grounds above.
Here the waste-which; on account OF Its
hardness and its crooked grain is useless,
and which comprises from half to three
quarters of the rough materials cleared
off and earted away. Of course a great
deal OF the rubbish is left in the pit,
from which, however, it has constantly
to be removed, lest the quarry should be-
come clogged with it. To keep the refuse
out of the way and the quarries free from
water. are the problems which require
great attention and vigilance, and the
men who do this best, other things being
equal, meet with the most gratifying re-
suits. OF course a large tract of land is
needed around each quarry for q dump
ing ground, so that an acre of waste land
conveniently situated is more valuable
than a quarter acre of slate land.
The processes by which slate is pre-
pared for use are most interesting. The
large blocks are first stscalloped." That
is to say, a workman takes a mallet and a
ohisel, cuts a notch in n end OF the
block, and by the most delicate handling
of the tools causes an almost impercepti-
BILE crack to run through the block in
exactly the direction he wishes until in a
remarkably short time the huge body d.
! vides. When the pieces become smaller,
another maj takes them and with q NAL
let and long, slender chisel splits them
the opposite way of the grain into plates,
of the thickness of a school slate or a
single. Each plate will be almost
exactly the same in thickness as every
other plate. School states are split in
this way on eighth of an inch thick and
roofing states are about double that thick
ness. A workman has been known to
| take pieces of slate several feet square
and one inch thick, and split them into
thirty-two plates each. These plates are
cut into the required sizes by large
knives, operated by treadles. The slate
which is used for heavier purposes is
taken into mills, where, by machinery OF
| wonderful power, it is sawed and planed
a1=a rubbed smooth.
Slate is measured by squares" each
square consisting of as much slate as
| would cover 100 square feet Of roof. It
is used for roofing, school states and
blackboards principally, and also for
trimming buildings and making steps
! and pavements. It's excellence for the
first two purposes is already well known.
For biackboards it is infinitely superior
to the ordinary painted wall, which actu-
| ally endangers the health of school chill
dren by raising clouds of chalk dust.
There is a peculiar elasticity about slate
steps and pavements which renders them
pleasant and easy to walkers, SO that it
IS much less tfresome to travel on slate
than on iron or stone. Slate is valuable
for window sills, house trimmings and
the fittings of bath and toilet room for
several reasons, one of which is that it is
absolutely impervious to water or fluid
of any kind.
Slate of the very best variety is found
in Wales where it has been mined for
many years. A very large proportion Of
the skaters employed in this country are
Welshmen. There is a little slate in
Germany, but not enough to make an
important factor in the trade. The
American slate fields are situated in
Maine, Vermont and Pennsylvania. The
Pennsylvania slate regions lie along the
Delaware and Lehigh Rivers. Last year
the Bangor district on the Delaware
turned out about 223, 600 squares of
slate, the Lehigh district about 135, 900
squares, Vermont about 1884, 900 squares
and Maine about 10000 squares. The
production il Wales is less than that OF
the United STATES. -Once-a- Week.