El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-13
8E!4laaRg45
ODD USE FOR CANNON BALLS
They Take the Place of Steel Wedges
In Stone Quarries.

They Take the Place of Steel Wedges
In stone Quarries.
Cannon balls for blastingH
This sign, hung in conspicuous
place before the door of a store on At
lantic avenue led n reporter inside and
started II bit of questioning upon the
| subject.
The proprietor said: Last fall when
the United States government sold all
of the old cannon balls and solid shot
which for so many years were piled In
pyramids along the main street of the
navy yard AT Charlestown we purchas-
ed lot of them. with little thought OF
converting them into anything besides
pig iron. But a few weeks after we
had stored them here l overheard
quarry owner complaining of the slow
ness and uncertainty of the old system
of steel wedging used in getting out
huge blocks of granite. and after a bit
of thought l suggested the use Of can
non balls in the place of the steel
wedges. We sent about 20 of various
sizes and weights out to his quarry,
and after the first trial he hurried q
team in here with a note that read:
Tried the cannon balls. They are
it. Send 80 more Have thrown the
steel wedges away
1.-The experience of this man led us to
send the cannon balls and solid shot to
other quarry operators, and within the
past month the orders have been COM
ing in so thickly we can scarcely fill
them from the stock on hand.
THE method used in getting out
great cubes or monOliths from the
granite and marble quarries has been
to drive steel wedges along the line Of
the lower portion of the split made by
blast until the great chunk of stone
topples over on its face.
1T required a deal of time and q
number of men with big iron sledges
and steel wedges TO separate these
cubes from the quarry wall from
which they had been started by the
blast.
The method now pursued with the
cannon balls is to start the block Of
stone away by a light blast, and then
between the quarry face and the block
several of the smaller solid shot. usual
~ the four inch sort. are dropped down
into the aperture. Two men with crow
bars give the block little shake and
the instant the block moves in the
slightest manner forward the shot take
up their purchase on the space made
when the large cannon balls. some
measuring IA or IL inches and weigh
Ing 200 or 300 pounds. are dropped into
the top of the gap. Now, the slightest
outward jar by levers on the big stone
sends these heavy cannon balls drop
ping downward of their own weight
until. with an easy forward motion the
cube goes over on its face.
These shot do away with any driv-
ing OF necessity their great weight
IN proportion to their size forces them
downward. and their form prevents
any chance Of backward setting of the
block.
These cannon balls are also used as
rollers. as they take up and go over the
inequalities of the quarry surface and
can he rolled in any direction without
rese'ting. thus doing away with the old
style wooden rollers.
They are also used to smother
heavy clearing out blasts. Heavy rome
mats are thrown over the surface
where the blast has been set and these
cannon balls are thrown on the mats"
Boston Globe