Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1912-12-28


Lime Stone Company, located just
South of Martinsburg will be read
with much interest by the people OF
this vicinity and those who are inter
ested in the development of the nat.
ural resources Of this section, and
particularly Of Berkeley county.
While the article is technical in a
way yet il ii such that all may under
stand II shows the possibilities Of
the wonderful high grade linestones
of which Berkeley county is world
famous.
The cuts used TO illustrate the arti.
Gle were loaned by the Manufactures
Record
ECONOMIES in Crushing.
Large capacity, with low produc-
ton cost, and removal of labor trouble
due to scarcity and demand for ordin-
AIRY labor are factors involved in the
construction of the new plant of the
National Limestone Co., at Martins
burg. w. Va. New principles and
methods are therein applied. result
ing in an operation worthy Of study
In most stone plants of the country
low cost Of plant appears as the prim-
airy feature, rather than low cost of
production. This plant, when com
plete and running at even half its ca
pacity, viii be able to load stone cars
at a cost heretofore considered inn
possible. Its future work will be
watched with serious interest by the
stone trade. IL Is one of the three
largest stone-crushing plants in the
country, the other two being located
near New York and Chicago.
Near Martinsburg the great Shen-
andoah Valley limestone. which ex-
tends from Southern Virginia north
into Pennsylvania in an unbroken belt
through those fertile valleys, includes
number of lenticular bodies of ex-
ceptionally pure limestone averaging
SO per cent carbonate of lime and
under / per cent. silica. These lenses
vary in width from a few feet, up to
1000 feet, and in length up to two
miles. Such high grade limestone is
of great value as iron and steel fur
mace fiux, for glass manufacture, fer
tilizer and various chemical uses.
This limestone has been worked in
this section for 20 years, and at the
present time there are five different
companies with large quarries. They
load the stone in the quarry by hand,
and transport 1t to gyratory crusher
plants in small cars up a cable line.
A large quarry thus uses large force
of laborers, and the plant capacity is
usually 1900 to 5000 tons daily.
At the National Limestone quarry
the stone is not handled by laborers
from quarry ledge to outgoing rail-
road car. 1t is the only quarry in this
entire area where the steam shovel is
used for loading stone. A Bucyrus
per, loads the stone into 15-ton stand
ard-gauge steel-skip cars, which are
hauled in train up the per cent. in
cline of the quarry by a Cotton CHM.
AK geared engine and thence by a 10
ton Vulcan locomotive TO the plant.
All quarry and mine-line tracks, five
miles in total length, are standard
gauge, rock ballasted
The quarry ledge, 70 feet high at
present, Is drilled by two Clipper well
drills. While this method of drilling
is used in most of the large Northern
and Western quarries, this is the only
quarry in this area following this
method, which represents a decided
lowering of cost in drilling and blast
ing. Seven to nine holes four and
half inches in diameter are drilled to
a depth of rs feet and loaded with
one to two tons Of dynamite. On ac-
count of the large size crusher hop
per, 1t is not necessary to break the
stone into small blocks by small shots.
Blocks 10 TO Is tons weight can be
lifted by the shovel and readily pass
through the crusher. BY hand meth
DDS a quarry producing 2000 tons of
crushed stone daily would require l25
or more laborers. In the steam-shovel
~ Dt pHhiNiNht Aoi
this output.
While the quarry is thus character
lied by modern equipment and meth
DDS, with consequent reduction of
cost, the feature of this operation
worthy of special attention is the
crushing plant.
The typical crushing plant in the
West Virginia quarry operations Is a
wooden tower building made of heavy
timber securely braced with ordinary
gyratory rock crushers, rotating cy-
lindrical screens and bucket elevators
with daily capacity of 500 to 1900
tons.
The plant Of the National Lime
stone Co. is a modern steel and con-
crete building equipped with the lat
est and most efficient labor-saving
machinery of large capacity. The
building covers floor space 50x220
feet, and is so to ITO feet high.
The lower building at the right has
two floors. On the upper floor is the
hopper and railroad tracks; on the