The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-12-26

individual manifestation is often unfor-
inmate. It leads the reporter who is
describing q local deposit Of black mar
BILE to declare II to be the only one
outside Of the Belgian quarries. or the
locator of a ledge Of photographic lime
stone TO hail ii as the sole occurrence
Of this grade Of stone outside of the
famous lodges Of Bavarian photographic
stone at Solnhofen. As matter Of
fact, the experienced stone man Is fully
aware that black marble and lithograph-
ic limestone are Of frequent occur
renee in many countries. A very limit
ed demand is the only factor that has
made possible the success OF the choic-
est variety of these two stones. II the
markets were active the secondary grades
might make their way to success.
1.-TWO unfortunate examples of reckless
statement have come to me during the
past month. One Of the Denver news
papers, in attempting to boom the Col
orado granite deposits at Salida, says:
II is conceded by the biggest granite
operators of the East, notably those Of
Barre, VT, that the Salda granite ex.
GELS in every point of merit that of any
other known granite deposits of the
United States, not excepting the ia
nous Milford Mass, granite
II am perfectly familiar with the
Salda stone, and it is a granite Of
average excellence, thoroughly worthy
Of development But to say that it
excels in every point Of excellence all
the other granite Of the country, or
even to compare il with the Barre,
Quincy or Westerly GRANTEES is moth
ing short Of ridiculous The Salida
stone is dark gray. and why any
attempt is made TO institute a com
parison with Milford pink is very pnz-
cling. Doubtless the writer had not
the slightest idea as to what Milford
granite is. but merely thought this was
standard granite and liked the sound
of the name.
Another statement that defeats its
purpose because il needlessly attempts
to claim too much is made by a Mil
waukee newspaper. This says: By a
recent comparative test, it was demon
strated that Montello granite is the
hardest stone yet discovered in the world
and that it possesses the greatest crush
ing strength-44000 pounds to the square
inch
at would be interesting to learn the
method of testing by which the hard
ness Of this stone was determined. So
far as | am aware, the mineralogists
are still depending for this test, on
Dana's scale of hardness This runs
frr - l al. ha
thumb nail, and symbolized by tale,
10 No. 10, which represents the hardness
OF the diamond. Granite ranges from
to in Danas scale If it were hard
er than this it would be unsuitable for
structural and decorative uses. All Of
the GRANTEES, including the Montelio,
range lower in hardness than some OF
the porphries, rhyolites, basalts, diorites
and andesitcs. 1t is to be suspected
that the crushing strength was taken
MS the index of hardness by the writer
of the paragraph under discussion. This
is by no means safe guide. The
crushing strength of the Montello gran
lite is very high--more than twice that
of the average granite. But the Off
cial records Of the United States geologi-
cal survey show that the crushing
strength Of some of the North Carolina
granite is between 81 900 and $4,000
pounds to the square inch. And yet
these stones are not particularly hard,
but are readily split and easily worked.
Finally, what is gained by such state
ment as | have quoted? Would it not
have been better point merely to de.
clare that official test showed that the