T HE various great improvements in the methods of quarry ing Quincy syenite must be noted. At first, the rude primi tive manner was to heat the stone, and let fall upon it a large iron ball to split it. Another system was to excavate a deep cavity in the ground under the large boulders, and fill the excavated space with brush or some other combustible matter, and set fire to it. When the stone became sufficiently heated, it was broken in various parts by the use of heavy sledge hammers. Then came the process of blasting, by drilling single holes in the stone, which was in use until the Louis hole was proven better.

The introduction of pneumatic tools and machinery has ren dered possible the utilization of the granites in monumental work to an extent that was quite impossible when the stone was dressed by hand.

Polishing granite by machinery was first introduced into this country at Quincy in 1869. Some attempts had been made previ ously, but the machinery made was crude and little success was obtained. In 1869, three Scotchmen, Gordon McKenzie, John West land and George S. Patterson, stonecutters located in Quincy, formed a co-partnership under the firm name of McKenzie, West land & Patterson. They hired land at the Quincy canal and built two straight sheds with an overhead travelling derrick between One shed was used for cutting and the other for polishing. The plant consisted of a 30 horse-power engine and boiler, a travelling carriage, two vertical and two pendulums.

Mr. Westland had considerable knowledge of polishing, having been in business for himself for several years in Aberdeen, Scot- land. He died in 1872, and the firm name was changed to McKenzie & Patterson. They carried on an extensive business in cutting and polishing granite until the death of Mr. McKenzie in 1897. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Patterson gave up manufacturing and the plant was sold and demolished.

When they first commenced polishing the price for plain work was $3.50 per square foot, and $3.00 to $4.00 per lineal foot per member for mouldings. The material used was beach sand for grinding, and Turkish emery for closing up the stone. All cutting for polishing had to be straight 8-cut work. The process was a slow one and the company endeavored to keep it a secret, allowing only their employees inside the polishing mill. However, these restric tions were unsuccessful, for about 1872 or 1873, Messrs Churchill & Hitchcock built a small polishing mill in connection with their cutting shed, on the North Common, and put in two small verticles. The price for plain polishing was then lowered to $2.75 per square foot. This reduction in cost stimulated the business and for the next decade the amount of polished work increased rapidly, so that a number of firms engaged in the business, among them Henry Bar ker & Sons, McDonnell & Sons, Frederick & Field, Murdock & Smith, Milne & Chalmers, and Badger Brothers.

With the increase in the number of firms engaged in polishing, prices dropped to one dollar per foot, and later there was a further drop to sixty-five cents per foot.

About that time an improved polishing machine was put on the market by Wright & Sons of Montpelier. Chilled iron shot was also introduced to the trade, but the inventor placed such annoying restrictions upon its use, and almost a prohibitive cost (above 12 cents per pound) upon the article that when a few months later Mr. Harrison of Canada offered chilled iron for less than half the price of the American article, almost every firm in the business began using the Canadian product, but soon found that they were liable for damages for infringement of the American patent. The owners of the patent settled most of their claims by long-time notes, and as the life of the patent expired only a few of the notes were paid. Up to and including thirty-seven years ago, the only abrasive used for sawing or polishing stone was sea sand. This was used with the old-fashioned gravity gang, a one saw frame, swinging like a pendulum, with ropes over the top of the frame on small pullies, and at the end of the ropes heavy pieces of iron or stone, which would allow the saw frame to rest on the stone with sufficient pres sure to enable the saw blades to force the sand through the stone at a moderate speed, the sand acting as teeth for the blade as the blade came in contact with the stone.

About thirty-seven years ago, John Harrison, a government contractor, father of the firm of Harrison Brothers, conceived the idea of using iron filings in place of sand, with the result that he found it was possible to increase the sawing output to such propor tions that would warrant the use of an artificial abrasive in place of sand. Later it was found that with the old style gravity gang saw it was impossible for it to go through the stone as fast as the abra sive would allow it. This, in turn, lead to the discovery of spiral gears for sawing frames, which forced the saw through the stone at any speed desired by the operator.

After several years of careful experiment, a cast iron shot came into existence, and was patented by John Harrison, the mate rial being made solely for his own use and in his own stone mills. It was not long, however, before the public learned of the fact that there was an artificial abrasive that was sawing more than twenty times faster than stone had ever been sawed. Orders came from all directions for this material, and it finally became necessary to establish a plant to produce shot only. In looking around for the cheapest metal market to be found, it was decided to locate the first large plant at Middlesbrough, England, where it was possible to get the raw material direct from the earth and produce shot at a minimum cost. This plant was established in 1887, the first of its kind in the world.

In manufacturing cast iron shot it was found that by making special sizes for sawing each kind of stone better results could be obtained. The stone sawing machinery kept pace with that of shot. After many years it was found possible to produce a chilled steel shot which has been called by the manufacturers Harrison Brothers' New Process Steel Shot. This material is shipped to all parts of the earth where stone of any kind is worked, and it has revolution ized the sawing and polishing of granite. Further experiments lead to the manufacture of what is known as Diamond Grit, or broken. New Process Steel Shot, which is angular in form. This is used for sawing soft stones, such as sandstone, limestone and for grinding down the face of terra cotta, brick, glass, onyx, etc.

The Harrison Brothers have a plant covering an area of one and one-quarter acres, producing New Process Steel Shot and Diamond Grit, and they give employment to a large number of men. Being specialized in this particular line of business and being the original manufacturers, they are producing an article that is recog nized as of a superior quality and which is doing 35 per cent more work than any other abrasive of its kind manufactured.

Henry Parker & Sons of Cape Ann, in 1877, had built in their stone works a sawing machine which was the first in the United States in constant use established for sawing granite with iron globules.

The modern polishing plants are a great improvement over their predecessors. Powerful overhead traveling cranes, large, heavy machines that use rings weighing from 800 to 900 pounds, and with a capacity of more than 25 feet per day are used, while small but effective machines for small work are also employed. In the old days six to eight square feet of polishing for a machine was considered a good day's work, and workmen were paid about 22 cents the hour. Today thousands of square feet of stone are pol ished daily, and the workmen receive forty cents per hour. Then all stones for polishing had to be well bushed, not less than 6-cut, but now rough pointed work only is required. It is also a notable fact that while the use of sand and emery has been entirely discontinued, yet nothing has been found that will take the place of putty powder or pulverized zinc and felt for glossing or finishing the stone. Very little improvement has been made in polishing mouldings by power. The pendulum is the same as of old, and the price high, about one dollar per lineal foot per member. Very little moulded work is polished and what little is treated is usually done by hand.

This custom of polishing granite is a revival or restoration of the Egyptian system of embellishing their syenite which is as old as the everlasting pyramids. The improvements in this branch by machinery has so reduced the cost as to make polished work more common than formerly. The polished surface is much more beauti- ful, it is also, so it is claimed, more durable, as the surface is thereby rendered perfectly impenetrable to the disintergrating ele ments, and the ravages of time, as may be seen in the beautiful specimens of polished red syenite of ancient Egypt, which still retain the original polish and color unimpaired.

Mr. Joseph Richards, of the firm of Richards & Munn, invented in 1831 the bush or axe hammer. The name of bush hammer was evidently local, as at Philadelphia and some other places, it was called axe hammer, from the several little axes being keyed into the cheeks of the instrument. There are six, eight, ten, or more axes connected with it. The number used depends upon the fineness the artisan desires to dress the stone. This useful instrument was first made by Richards, solid or wholly in one piece, for which he received a patent. Since then improvements have been made by constructing it in several pieces. Mr. Richards is also said to have been the first to suggest, construct and utilize the Louis hole, as now applied for blasting purposes. A machine for dressing stone, patented by Charles Wilson of New York was set up in Quincy in 1853 by Richards, Munn & Co. Not proving a success it was removed to the Rockport quarries on Cape Ann, where it was used only one season by Barker, Wright & Co. with more or less suc cess. The same system is said to have been in use in Aberdeen, Scotland. The McDonald stone planing and bushing machine was patented and manufactured by the McDonald Stone Planing Machine Company of Boston in 1879. This machine will plane 7 feet 6 inches wide, but a stone 10 feet 6 inches in width can be run through on the carriage, the carriage traveling when planing a stone 7 feet 6 inches wide at the rate of 3 inches per minute or 15 feet per hour, but can be run when not planing at the fast speed of 30 feet per minute. The average speed of the planer is 25 revolu tions per minute. The planer will take off a chip one inch deep, planing the surface the full width of the machine 7 feet 6 inches, and with the carriage traveling at the rate of 15 feet per hour, planing a surface of more than 100 square feet of stone per hour. The bushing machine which is attached to frame and runs directly behind the planer can be used when bushing is required.

The old method of drilling and blasting formerly applied to all classes of rocks, is now done away with, excepting in the very hard est and toughest of materials, or where, as in the case of the trap pean rocks, the material is to be utilized only for road material. Even when drilling or blasting is resorted to, it is the custom to drill a series of holes in the line along which it is desired the stone shall break, these holes are then charged lightly and fired simultaneously. In this way the force of the explosion is delivered along a consid erable surface, and the danger of shattering the material through the sudden jar is reduced to a minimum. This process is largely limited to granitic rocks which are too hard to be quarried by means of the channeling machines.

The drill commonly employed for this work consists in its simplest form of a steam cylinder mounted upon a tripod, with the drill attached directly to the piston. Since a flexible hose is used to convey steam from the boiler, this form of drill can be carried to any part of the quarry. Numerous adaptations of this drill have been put upon the market by various makers on soft stone, like sand stone or granitic rocks, with a well-developed rift and grain. Drills of this kind are utilized in what is known as plug-and-feather split ting. Here a series of holes of a diameter and depth depending upon the character of the rock are drilled at intervals along the line at which it is desired to break the stone. Long metal wedges or plugs are then driven into the holes and the material is split away in fairly regular blocks.

Channeling machines are utilized in the softer rocks since they would be liable to injury through blasting. One of the earliest of these machines upon the market was the Wardwell channeling ma chine, but the later improvements make it possible to cut a channel at any desired angle. What is known as the quarry bar, answering the same purpose as the channeling machine, is also used. A machine based on the same principal for undercutting or gadding, is in common use in marble quarries. A diamond drill machine is used for similar purposes.

After the stone is removed from the quarry bed it is worked into the desired shape and size by a process dependent largely upon the stone. Formerly a block after being reduced to an approximately rectangular form by means of hand plug-and-feather splitting, was still further reduced by pitching tools, followed when necessary by such implements as the point, axe, pean hammer and bush ham mer. But pneumatic tools have almost entirely replaced hand and steam implements. The pneumatic surface machine is used by every stone-cutting shed and quarry as are other too,ls, such as cutters, drills, etc. Lathes and planers are also extensively used, indeed, the production of cylindrical columns by the old hand method has been entirely superseded by lathes similar to those used in turning metals. A circular planer is used for working out curved surfaces. In handling the material in the yards and shops, traveling cranes and derricks are used much as in iron and steel works.

At Barre, whenever the sheets are imperfectly developed the following method of using explosives is adopted: A thick rectangu lar block is obtained by channeling along a vertical rift, and also at two points along the hard way, at right angles to the rift, the fourth side being that of a joint or heading. An artificial sheet part ing is then made by drilling divergent holes 10 feet deep along a horizontal grain. These holes taper from one and one-half inches to one inch and are filled with but small charges of powder. Quarrymen, like other artisans, have their own peculiar terms to denote the character of their work or to explain the method they use. Among the more familiar of these expressions are the follow ing:

BLACK HORSE-A dark biotite gneiss in contact with the granite.

BLIND SEAMS-Incipient joints.

BOULDER QUARRY-One in which the joints are either so close or so irregular that no very large blocks of stone can be quarried.

CHANNEL-A narrow artificial incision across a mass of rock, which, in the case of a granite sheet, is made either by a series of continuous drill holes or by blasting a series of holes arranged in zizzag order.

CLEAVAGE-A structure consequent upon the geometrical arrangement of its molecules at the time of its crystallization.

CLOSE-JOINTED-Joints that are very near together.

CUT-OFF-The direction along which the granite must be channeled because it will not split.

DIMENSION STONE-Stones that are quarried of required dimensions.

GRAIN in granite is practically the direction in which the stone splits "next easiest," the "rift" being that in which it splits most readily.

GROUT-Waste material of all sizes obtained in quarrying stone.

GROW-ON-The place where the sheet structure dies out, or the place where two sheets appear to grow onto one another.

HARD-WAY-The direction at right angles to both rift and grain in which granite does not split readily.

HEADING-A collection of close joints.

KNOTS-Dark gray or black objects, more or less oval or circu lar in cross-section, which are segregations of black mica or horn blende formed in the granite while in a molten state. English quarrymen call them "heathen."

KNOX HOLE-A circular drill hole with two opposite vertical grooves which direct the explosive power of the blast.

LEWIS HOLE-An opening made by drilling two or three holes near together and chiseling out the intervening rock. RANDOM STONE-Quarried blocks of any dimensions.

RIFT-An obscure microscopic cleavage in granite which greatly facilitates quarrying.

RUN-A term used by quarrymen in connection with "rift," apparently to denote the course of the deflection of the rift due to gravity, strain, or other not yet understood cause.

SALT-HORSE-Quarrymen's term for aplite.

SAND SEAMS-More or less minute veins or dikes of muscovite (white mica) with some quartz, in cases also with feldspar. SAP-Ferruginous discoloration along sheet or joint surfaces.

SEAM-Quarrymen's term for joint.

SHAKES-A somewhat minute close-joint structure, which forms along the sheet surface as a result of weathering (?).

SHEET QUARRY-A quarry in which the granite lies in sheets, crossed by wide-spaced steep joints.

STRAIN-SHEET-Granite sheets produced by present compressive strain.

STRIKE-The direction at right angles to the inclination of a plane of beding, a sheet, or joint, etc.

STRIPPING-The material (sand, clay, soil, etc) overlying a rock of economic value, which must be removed before quarrying.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY-The weight of a rock or mineral compared to that of a body of distilled water of the same bulk.

TIGHTSET-Equivalent to blind seam, an incipient joint, in places associated with microscopic quartz veins.

TOEING-IN-The wedging in of the end of a granite sheet under an overhanging joint, probably in consequence of the faulting of the sheets along the joint. It is also applied to the overlapping of lenticular sheets.

"TOE NAILS"-Curved joints intersecting the sheet structure in most cases striking with the sheets, in some differing from them in strike 45 degrees or more.

WEATHERING-The decomposition of a rock owing to the action of the weather.