The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-01

will try and put it in a way that VIII help you to follow this story of Visit to famous quarry in Alabama, for re- gently I spent a morning, one of the most interesting of my life, at Gannts Quarry, near sylacauga, "the Marble City"
 Marble Is any limestone, granular to compact texture, capable of taking poi ish or of being used for statuary. orna- mental purposes, or for architectural work. The purest form in statuary mar ble. white and finely crystalline as the famous Parian, Pentelic and Carrara marbles. It was thought for years that only the imported marbles were good enough for statuary use but Moretto demonstrated beyond question that Ala bama marble is as good if not better than even the famous Carrara marble.
 
 In color marble ranges from pure white through all the shades of gray to black, yellow, pink, red, violet, drab, and green are common. The grays and blacks are due to carbonferous matter, the others mainly to iron oxids. The color varies according to the admixed matter, often showing beautifully veined and clouded effects. I saw beautiful picture of a sunset in the home of Manager Purge of the Alabama Marble company. It was a thin sheet of the Gannts Quarry fa- nous sunset marble held where the light showed through it.
 It will be remembered that the act of Congress providing for the erection of the Washington monument stipulated that each state should furnish a native stone to be built into it. Governor Moore of Alabama caused a suitable stone to be cut from quarry in Talladega coun- ty. but those in charge of the erection of the monument, believing that the Ala bama governor had forwarded piece Of Italian marble. refused to use it until convinced by affidavits that it was gen uine native Alabama stone. The monu- ment authorities apologized by saying they did not know that America con tained such a superior quality of mar ble.
 The marble of Alabama Is usually de- scribed as fne-grained white marble, but it seems that the Gannt quarry , owned and operated by the Alabama Mar ble company is rich in that it features several varieties.
 Cream A" is a lovely white marble with cream and ivory background Ala bama Italian" so-called for its resem- blance to the famous Italian marble, is a white marble with a blue background "Pocahontos Is a highly colored marble sawed across grain and noted for Its decorative possibilities in interior work ''Pavonazzo" is highly colored with green veins predominating. Qt will be used in the federal reserve bank a Atlanta) Sunset" a mixture of red green and pink tints, is wonderfully translucent, as can be seen in the lobby of the Brown-Marx building. where i | Is used as dials.
 | Alabama marble Is slightly finer II grain than the Vermont marble and mucf finer than the Georgia and Tennesse' marble It is much harder to saw, dut | to the high interlocking of its crystals Tit resists strain better than other mar bles, and is harder to chip and is tn only marble that can be shipped un crated without danger of being broken It is also remarkable for its tensil strength. Thin layers of 1t can be han died with perfect safety without an danger of it's weight snapping it. At tn finishing mill at Gannts Quarry l saN thin strips handled with ease
 I
 The main marble depositN as shown b pr. William F. Prouty, chief assistan of the geological survey, who spent portion of five summers in getting tn data for his exhaustive bulletin, show that the crystalline marble deposits be gin in the northern part of Coosa count and run in a general northwest directio for 35 miles through Talladega county the maximum width of the era bearin
 rocks being about one and one-ha lmiles, with some portions running to
 depth of 400 feet or more. There is flight gray marble near Pratts ferry i
 Bibb county that has been worket Marble Is also found in several othe counties, but has not been worked.
 Alabama marble was Quarried an
 used locally for tombstones and kir
 dred work before the civil war. A M
 Hurd first quarried and used the mar ble near Sylacauga in or around 1S4
 and he was succeeded by Dr. Gannt,
 Mexican war veteran, who continued oI
 erations on g. comparatively small seal
 until 1861 or 1S62 and then the wor
 was indefinitely suspended until 19o
 when company known as the Alabam
 White Marble company was organize
 by Edward Hitler and Herbert A. For
 They enlarged the business and sol
 lot of the output throughout the coui
 try.
 However, 1t was not until 1905 ths
 the present operating company, the All
 bama Marble company was formed wit
 a sufficient working capital to go aftt
 business in . big way. Henry Evan Lpresident of the Continental Insurant
 company. became president; Maj. J.
 sewell. vice president and with thel
 are associated . number of prominei
 New York financiers. w. H. Runge
 general manager, and s. FL Hitler. wit
 headquarters in Birmingham. is u
 southern sales and traffic agent. It
 a matter of moro than passing intere lthat Major Sewell. now colonel Sever