Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-25
Spencer I rask & CO.
BANKERS,
William and Pine Sts., New York.
Investment Securities.
Members New York Stock Exchange.
Branch once. Albany. N. Y.
5a2Stu, th6S- l56t-N
MARBLE oUARR1Es OF CARRARA.
The Various Processes of Moving the
Stone Described
the Magazine OF Commerce.

7. Retlaw in the Magazine Of Commerce.
So close Is the connection between Car
rara and marble, and for many CEN
turtles has it endured. that now the words
are almost interchangeable. Though the
town is some miles distant from the actual
quarries. practically all the inhabitants are
concerned in some way or other with the
marble industry. Marble is all around you.
huge quantities awaiting shipment the
Marina: trucks loaded with it at every
siding of the railway; clumsy. cumbrous
wagons groan and creak through the town
and along the roads. saving mills buzz.
and Workmen chip and chisel and carve on
every side. From the town narrow, pic
turesque valley extends inland, rising all
the way to the heights on which are sit
uate the actual quarries OF these, there
are between 300 and 400, and they give en-
ployment to about 1000 men. The method
employed for detaching the blocks is that
of face blasting When the holes have been
drilled and charged, one man blows the
warning horn, and the note is repeated by
one norm after another; and, as the echoes
and reverberations die away among the
hills. the quarrymen all scramble into the
Shelters and then comes the boom of the
explosion. followed by the rattle and clatter
of the falling blocks. echoed and re-echoed
again and again. So great are the dis
tances, and so large is the scale of the
whole scene, that these blocks look like
mere rubble, though in fact they may, and
probably do, weigh anything from thirty
to fifty tons apiece.
After the blocks have been detached there
arises the difficult task of TRANSPORTING
them from the places where they fell and
rested after blasting down the steep. road
less sides of the mountain to the wagon
road at its foot. or to the railhead of the
Marmifera railway, and thence to Car
rara to the Marina for shipment 1t is
usual to contract for this difficult and
somewhat dangerous work with the body
or men known as the lizZatura, who de-
vote themselves entirely to this special
business. The feats they perform in hand
ling huge blocks of fifty tons weight prac-
tically without the aid of modern scientific
appliances are really astonishing. for while
1t Is mere commonplace in any modern
dockyard or engineering works to see
weights of this nature handled and shifted
with apparent ease by powerful cranes. 1t
is quite another thing to face the task
on steep mountain side. with only hand
levers, rope or two. and a soaped skid.
When block detached by the blast has
fnally come to rest. 1t Is roughly squared
as 1t lies before the LIZA commence OPP
eratons. Then two or sometimes three
strong cables are secured round the block
to hold it back and check the speed of its
descent Formerly only one restraining
cable was employed. but accidents were
frequent and many deaths occurred. and
the government interposed and ordained
that at least three should be used. Like
all men whose work brings them
grow careless of the risk and frequently
content themselves with two instead Of
the three cables ordered by the law
The men working in gangs of about a
dozen raise the lower end Of the block
by means of crOwbarS and Screwjacks and
insert underneath a well-soaped wooden
skid. Then. having given the cables some
turns round a strong wooden post driven
deep and firm into the loose marble rubble
enough rope Is paid out to allow the block
to slide slowly forward on the skid by the
force of gravitation without allowing 1t to
acquire dangerous momentum. AS the
block glides downward, one man goes i'm
mediately in front of 1t to prapare Its path
by laying a succession of freshly soaped
skids. Another follows closely behind to
pick up each skid as soon as it Is cleared
by the block. These he hands to two men
seated on the block itself. whose business
it Is to soap them afresh. and hand them
to the man in front. OF course, this man
has by far the most dangerous post
Through the parting Of a cable or mis-
take In paying out. many one has been
instantly crushed to death. The
average annual output of the Carrara quar-
ries Is, roughly. about 200.OOO tons, about
three-quarters of which is exported and
though the quarries have been worked for
centuries there need be no fear of the SUP
ply running short for many centuries yet
to come.