©2013 The Early American Industries Association. May not be reprinted without permission. www.earlyamericanindustries.org The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc. Vol. 59, No. 2 June 2006 The Early American Industries Contents Association President: Tools and Machinery of the Granite Industry Donald D. Rosebrook Executive Director: by Paul Wood -------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Elton W. Hall THE PURPOSE of the Associa- Machines for Making Bricks in America, 1800-1850 tion is to encourage the study by Michael Pulice ----------------------------------------------------------- 53 of and better understanding of early American industries in the home, in the shop, on American Bucksaws the farm, and on the sea; also by Graham Stubbs ---------------------------------------------------------- 59 to discover, identify, classify, preserve and exhibit obsolete tools, implements and mechani- Departments cal devices which were used in early America. Stanley Tools by Walter W. Jacob MEMBERSHIP in the EAIA The Advertising Signs of the Stanley Rule & Level Co.— is open to any person or orga- Script Logo Period (1910-1920) ------------------------------------------- 70 nization sharing its interests and purposes. For membership Book Review: Windsor-Chair Making in America, From Craft Shop to Consumer by information, write to Elton W. Hall, Executive Nancy Goyne Evans Director, 167 Bakerville Road, Reviewed by Elton W. Hall ------------------------------------------------- 75 South Dartmouth, MA 02748 or e-mail: [email protected]. Plane Chatter by J. M. Whelan An Unusual Iron Mounting ------------------------------------------------- 76 The Chronicle Editor: Patty MacLeish Editorial Board Katherine Boardman Covers John Carter Front: A bucksaw, patented in 1859 by James Haynes, and a nineteenth century Jay Gaynor Raymond V. Giordano saw-buck. Photograph by Graham Stubbs, who discusses American bucksaws Rabbit Goody in this issue beginning on page 59. Charles F. Hummel Walter Jacob Johanna M. Lewis, Ph.D Back: A Stanley 9-x-18-inch baked enamel tin sign, circa 1910, manufactured Michael H. Lewis by the New York Metal Ceiling Company. The sign is L-shaped and bent on the Dan Reibel left edge so it could be fastened to the hardware store wall. Below is a Stanely Bill Robertson 3/ Jack Whelan embossed poster board sign (actual size 7 x 12 4 inch), circa 1912. Walter Jacob Frank White discusses Stanley signs in his article beginning on page 71. The Chronicle welcomes contri- butions from anyone interested in our purpose. Submit articles to: Patty MacLeish, Editor, 31 Walnut Street, Newport, RI 02840. Telephone: (401) 846- 7542; Fax: (401) 846-6675; E-mail: pmacleish@verizon. net. We prefer articles to be sub- The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc. (ISSN 0012-8147 ) is published quarterly by the Early mitted on disk or electronically. American Industries Association, Inc. Elton W. Hall, Treasurer, 167 Bakerville Road, South Dartmouth, MA 02748. Please submit in any commonly POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc. c/o Elton used word processing program. W. Hall, Treasurer, 167 Bakerville Road, South Dartmouth, MA 02748. USPO Publication Number 560-620. Periodical If typed, please double space. postage paid at New Bedford, MA, and at additional mailing offices. ©2006 The Early American Industries Association. The Chronicle is available on microfilm from: ProQuest, 300 Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Articles appearing The Chronicle are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History And Life. Design: Patty MacLeish, Ideas into Print, 31 Walnut Street, Newport, RI 02840. Printed by Cayuga Press, 1650 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. ©2013 The Early American Industries Association. May not be reprinted without permission. www.earlyamericanindustries.org Tools and Machinery of the Granite Industry by Paul Wood Introduction his article, the first in a series of four on granite Tworking, deals with granite as a material, an industry, and a product and begins the description of the granite quarrying process. The second article will complete the account of granite quarrying. The final two articles concern the process of finishing granite and will conclude with a discussion of power sources, toolmaking, patents, granite workers, labor unions, and safety and health issues. The four articles will appear in consecutive issues of The Chronicle. Granite Composition ranite is a very common stone found world-wide. Figure 1. Distribution of granite and allied rocks in the United GGranite has been commercially quarried in the States. The three primary areas are the along the Appalachian United States, Canada, Scotland, Finland, Italy, Ukraine, Mountains on the east coast, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the Great India, China, and Africa. Granite is found throughout Lakes region, and California, Colorado, Idaho, and Arizona west of the Rockies. the United States and has been commercially exploited in every New England state (Figure 1). Granite is com- posed primarily of quartz and feldspar with smaller amounts of mica. Quartz contributes to granite’s strength, hardness, and luster, and acts as a cement binding all the elements together. Feldspar, granite’s principal ingredient, occurs in a number of forms, mostly sodium/aluminum/silicon-rich plagio- clase and potassium-rich microcline. In addition to contributing to strength and hardness, feldspar primarily determines granite’s color, resistance to discoloration and decay, and ability to receive a polish. Mica (mostly white muscovite and black biotite) is present in much smaller amounts. The rela- tive amounts of white and black mica are an important factor in both the color and commercial value of the granite. If white mica predominates, the granite will be light-colored, and if the black predominates, the granite will be dark, often approaching black. If the white and black occur in roughly equal amounts, the granite will be speckled. Since mica does not polish well nor does it retain its luster, excessive amounts of mica decrease the com- mercial value of granite. As an example, granite of the Barre, Vermont, area contains 31.7 percent plagioclase feldspar, 26.4 percent microcline feldspar, 23.3 percent quartz, 6.4 percent muscovite mica, 4.5 percent biotite mica, 2.7 percent orthoclase, 2.1 percent chlorite, and 1.6 percent calcite. Granite is an igneous rock, formed by high heat and pressure from mol- ten rock called magma. Deep magma over time forced its way up through Figure 2. Carter’s Royal Blue, a fine dark fissures and cracks toward the surface where it cooled into columns of monumental granite from Hardwick, Ver- granite called plutons. Over millions of years, erosion, especially glaciation, mont, shows a marked contrast between exposed the tops of the plutons. In Barre, Vermont, it is estimated that the hammered and polished surfaces. pluton is ten miles deep—plenty of granite for the future. If the cooling The Chronicle Volume 59, No. 2 37 ©2013 The Early American Industries Association. May not be reprinted without permission. www.earlyamericanindustries.org the depth of the quarry; hence, the deeper the quarry the larger the defect-free blocks that can be extracted. Marble, limestone, and slate are granite’s chief competitors. Marble is easy to rough out but difficult to finish. It carves beauti- fully and takes a sharp carved edge. However, marble does not stand up well out of doors since it dissolves, pits, and discolors in pol- luted air. Limestone is easy to work when freshly quarried, takes a sharp carved edge and weathers well outdoors. Slate is easy to work but due to its strong lines of cleavage is subject to flaking both while being worked and as it ages. Brownstone and sandstone Figure 3. The brightness of Bethel white granite is evident in this postcard view were used for buildings in the nineteenth of the Woodbury Granite Co. quarry at Bethel, Vermont. From left to right can be century, but these stones are very soft and seen a cableway with suspended grout box, guy boom derrick, quarry drill mounted on a channel bar, and a tripod drill mount. subject to flaking and pitting. Granite is the hardest and most durable of the building and was slow, it produced coarse-grained, building-grade monumental stones and is the most difficult to quarry granite with large crystals, up to the size of a large pea. and to finish. The development of the granite business Monumental granite must be fine grained, with crystals into a large-scale industry had to wait on the invention the size of a pin head, to allow fine carved details and to of more powerful and more efficient tools and machin- accept a mirror-like polish. Fine monumental granite ery to deal with this obdurate stone. occurs, for example, at Barre, Vermont, Quincy, Mas- sachusetts, and Westerly, Rhode Island, while building A Brief History of granite occurs at Woodbury and Bethel, Vermont. America’s Granite Industry Only granite, certain marbles and a few dolomites can ften farmers who lived where granite was found cut be polished. Limestone, soft marbles, and sandstones Ostone from boulders on the “back 40” as a part-time can be rubbed and honed but not polished. Monument activity and used a corner of their barns as stone sheds. designers exploit the marked contrast between dark- Some towns had common lands strewn with granite polished and light-hammered granite surfaces (Figure boulders. Boulders on the Braintree, Massachusetts, 2). Different quarries not only yield a range of grain commons were the chief source of stone for local area sizes but also a wide variety of colors, including deep building projects. People helped themselves until 1715, red, light pink, white, light gray, gray with blue tints, when the Braintree town fathers became concerned that dark gray, and black. The white granite of Bethel, Ver- the supply of stones would become exhausted, and they mont, is the whitest known granite, having almost the declared that from then on permission would be required appearance of a fine white marble, and this white stone to remove any stone.