The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-11
ouARRTEs OF cARRARA
T. Retlaw Describes the Processes of
 Moving the Stone.

AOV1nk Luo 0JOuSs
 So close Is the connection between Car ! rara and marble. and for SO many cen-
 turtles has 1t endured. that now the words are almost interchangeable. Though the town is some miles distant from the &C., tual quarries. practically all the inhab- itants are concerned in some way or other with the marble industry. Marble Is all around you, remarks T. Retiaw in The Magazine of Commerce, huge quantities awaiting shipment on the Mariana; trucks loaded with it at every siding of the rail- way; eiurDsy. cumbrous wagons groan and creak through the town and along the roads, saving uiiils buzz. and work men chip and chisel and carve on every side From the town . narrow, pictur. esque valley extends inland, rising all the
 way to the heights on which are situated between 30 an 40o, and they give em. pioyment 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 re- peated by one horn after another; and, as the echoes and reverberations die away among the hills. the quarrymen all scram-
 bls into the shelters. and then comes the boom of the explosion followed by the rattle and chatter of the falling blocks, echoed and re-echoed again and again
 So great are the distances, 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 Aave been detached there arises the difficult task of trans porting them from the places where they fell and rested after blasting down the steep. roadless sides of the mountain to
 the wagon road at It's foot, or to the rail AA AR E-aN
 thence to Carrara or to the Marina for
 shipment It Is usual to contract for
 this difficult and somewhat dangerous
 work with the body of men known as the ltzzatura, who devote themselves entirely
 to this special business. The feats they perform in handling huge blocks of fifty
 tons weight practically without the aid Of modern scientific appliances are really astonishing. for while it is a mere com
 monplace in any modern backyard or en- gineefing works to see weights of this
 nature handled and shifted with apparent east by powerful cranes. 1t is quite an other thing to face the task on a steep mountain side. with only hand levers, a rope or two, and a soaped skid When block detached by the blast has finally come to rest, 1t Is roughly squared as 1t lies before the Izza, commence opera tions. Then two, or sometimes three, strong cables are secured round the block to hold 1t 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 interposCd and ordained that at least three should be used. Like all men whose work brings them con stantly face to face with danger, the lisza grow careless of the risk. and fre- quently content themselves with two in- stead of the three cables ordered by the law.
 The men working in gangs of about dozen. raise the lower end of the block by means of crowbars and screwJacks. and insert underneath a we'll soaped wooden skid. Then, having given the ca bles some turns round a strong wooden post, driven deep and firm into the loose marble ruhbie. enough rope Is played out to allow the block to slide slowly forward on the skid by the force of gravitation, without allowing 1t to acquire a danger ous momentum. As the block gIides for ward one man goes Immediately in front of 1t to prepare it's path by laying a suc- cession of freshly soaped skids. An other follows closely behind to pick up each skid as soon as 1t 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 lWs by far the most dangerous post Through the parting of a cable. or a mis- take in paying out, many a one has been instantly crushed to death. The average annual output of the Carrara quarries Is. roughly. about 2OO.0oO tons. about three-quarters of which is exported and though the auarries have been work ed for centuries. there need be no fear of the supply running short for many cen turies to come.