Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-15
200 TONS OF ROCKs'

That is What it Takes Daily to Satisfy
 the Appetite or the CIty's Stone Crush
 err Inspector fReiley's New Methods a
 Success. q
 Outing the severe storm of Saturday af- ternoon a reporter of the DEMOCRAT accom- panied Street Inspector Kelley to the stone crusher plant at West Cheshire. On the way hailstones as big ss marbles bounded on the highway, but when the crusher was reached the workmen made light of this and said that they had been making snow balls of the frozen rain drops for the past half hour. The scene of the plant is one of the most romantic within miles of Wa terbury. Surrounded by clustering woods on the Dorth and a mountain of iutting ledgeS of rock oh the west, the oddly shaped building presents formidable ap- pearance. reminding one of some time- honored fortress of medieval ages, which had stubbornly detied the repeated assaults of the invader, and despite the havoc which time produces on mans stoutest structure, still preserves abund dant proof of it's former architectural grandeur and impregnability of character.
 The unearthly crunching sound which issues from the jaws of the crusher when a huge boulder comes between them is ter rife and reverberates through the woods with such distinctness that an echo can be heard on the roadway which would lead one not aware of what was going on to be- lieve that the massive rocks overhead were crumbling to pieces. The quarried stones, some of them good load for a man, are thrown into the jaws of the crusher on the ground floor and are quickly ground into small pieces and carried in chutes into the upper story of the building, where thep are emptied into the separator, a re- Ixy;v1n sISl 4 four different sized cobbles are sent out into the freight cars which stand in the rear of the building. No l is the largest size. Two-thirds of this kind is used wit numbers two and three in making the ma,- adamized roads. No is the fine siftings, small portion of which is used when the last layer is put down.
 Everything about the place moves like clockwork. Each man has his own parti- cular part of the work, for which he is per sonally responsible, and the smallest as well as the largest stone that is taken from the ledges goes to make up the component parts of the eighty or one hundred tons of macadam which is being hauled into the city almost every day.
 For the past few weeks the insp sctor has had considerable difficulty in getting out enough stone to keep the machine con- stantly at work. It has an unsuitable appe. tite and can swallow and digest two hun. dred tons of rock in ten hours if put to its fullest capacity, taking the same dose the next day. The foreman found it practical ly impossible to get men to supply sufficient material with the use of the hand drills. A steam drill had been tried some years before and was pronounced failure. Something must be done, else the work of macadamizing the streets must proceed in dilatory manner.
 The inspector is not the kind of man to succumb to obstacles and he recommended that tbe services of a steam drill be brought into play. The foreman hesitated. It had been tried before and had failed, and in any case there was To one about the place who knew how to operate it. But the inspectors order prevailed and the steam drill was secured and set in motion For two days the workmen wrestled with the apparatus and finally gave it up in dis gust. saying the blooming thing was no good and would not work. The inspector had implicit faith ln the ill and be- lieved that all that was necessa Y to make aSsuccess of it was to find man who knew how to work it A week ago last Monday he went out to the plant with James Flynn of Stone street. mnd before the men knew V hat had taken pl"c, the new man had drilled a hole stNrIl feet deep into the ledge. Blasts w.re discharged which shook the whole territory, and since that day all that Is need, Il at the stone crusher plant is sufficient freight car accommoda- tion. The hand drills have been dis carded and are not likely to ba used again, for with the proper manag ment of the new apparatus more stone can be turned out in one day than could be in a week with the old fashioned method of do- ing the work. Apart from supplying the demand for the stone it is great saving u the street department and facilitates the work in wonderful degree for the men at the plant.