Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-02-07
Mining White Marble.

yards and public monuments, and the
greater per cent of the Vermont mar
bic comes from Rutland county. The
man who first discovered the posssiblll-
ties of the quarries in Rutland county
traded an old horse for the property.
The original owner had become dis
gusted with the land, for nothing
would grow on it, and he snapped a
fortune for decrepit nag which was
dear at $l5 The gold craze of 49
urged men to risk their lives and en-
dure the greatest hardships to find the
yellow metal, and the marble craze IN
Vermont which followed the discovery
of the rich deposits of pure white mar
bic caused men to pour money into
holes and sink fortunes in the. ground.
The Green Mountains are pock-marked
with abandoned quarries, and the quest
for the fortune which awaited man
at the bottom of rich marble quarry
sent prospectors into New Hampshire
and all along the backbone of the
Green Mountain State.
Until the diamond drill was invented
prospecting for marble was almost
always matter Of guess-work. But the
faithful detective which bores It's way
into the earth's crust and brings back
a piece of everything it touches placed
marble-hunting in the list of exact
sciences. The diamond drill is a cyl
inder of steel which has black dia-
monds fixed in the edge of its cutting
surface. The diamond-studded cyl
inSer is driven into the earth or out
cropping stone, and as it twists its way
farther into the crust it cuts out a core
which enables the prospector to Judge
of the quality of the marble, if the
drill goes through marble, and the ex-
tent of the deposit Sometimes, how
ever, the enthusiastic prospector and
his moneyed men.who are back of the
enterprise are sadly fooled by the dia-
mond drill, for the drill might be
bored in the direction of the layer and
not through it. If the layer is thin,
and the drill bored with the grain, the
core might indicate thick deposit,
and the truth would not be known
until thousands of dollars had been
spent in opening the quarry. Over
100000 has been expended in open
ing a quarry before a single dollars
worth of marketable stone was taken
out.
When all the tests show that the
marble is there, and enough of it to
pay for the working, the top rock,
usually of limestone, is first stripped
off. Blasting powder and dynamite
are employed in stripping the quarry,
but the blasts are small, and the quarry
men proceed carefully, for if the pow
der should penetrate the marble it
would do serious damage. When the
top stone is cleared away and the top
layer of marble is exposed, channeling
machines similar to those which are at
work in the rock cut of the sanitary
canal are started. They are worked
by steam or compressed air, and they
travel back and forth, cutting the
marble into the widths required. Some
times the diamond borer, or quick
acting diamond drill, is used to slice
up the marble. 1t makes holes near
together, the holes being connected by
webs of marble. These borers reyolve
about 500 times a minute and when
the marble is not too hard work rapid
ly. When the channeling machines,
or diamond borers, have cut the mar
bic into slices the stone is cut away
at either end so that the quarrymen
can get at the bottom Of the layers
that have been cut. Then steam-drills
bore holes into the bottom Of the lay
er from eight inches to foot apart
Iron or steel wedges are placed in these
bottom holes and driven in until the
whole block of marble is broken away
from its bed and lifted up. Some
times blocks or strips forty to sixty
feet long are thus cut out Of the solid
rock. The huge block is divided into
blocks of the required size by boring
holes and breaking it with iron wedges.
If slabs OF tiles are wanted the smaller
blocks are taken to the saw and sawed
into strips Several strips are sawed
at once. The saw is made of steel
strips witbou! teeth. They play back
and forth over the block and cut the
stone by means Of the sand and water
which are continually fed under the
metal strips.
The marble quarries Of Rutland lie
in valley and extend over an area Of
only about half mile square. The