Scientific American Supplement, No. 360, November 25, 1882Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 360, November 25, 1882
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Slate was known to exist in this country to a slight extent in colonial
days. It was then used for gravestones, and to some extent for roofing
and school purposes. But most of our supplies came from Wales. It is
stated that a slate quarry was operated in Northampton County, Pa., as
early as 1805. In 1826 James M. Porter and Samuel Taylor engaged in the
business, obtaining their supplies from the Kittanninny Mountains. From
this time the business developed rapidly, the village of Slateford being
an outgrowth of it, and large rafts being employed to float the product
down the Schuylkill to Philadelphia. By 1860 the industry had reached
the capacity of 20,000 cases of slate, valued at $10 a case, annually.
In 1839 quarries were opened in the Piscataquis River, forty miles
north of Bangor, Me., but poor transportation facilities retarded the
business. Vermont began to yield in 1852. New York's quarries are
confined to Washington County, near the Vermont line. Maryland has
a limited supply from Harford County. The Huron Mountains, north of
Marquette, Mich., contain slate, which is also said to exist in Pike
County, Ga.
Grindstones, millstones, and whetstones are quarried in New York, Ohio,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other States. Mica is found at Acworth and
Grafton, N. H., and near Salt Lake, but our chief supply comes from
Haywood, Yancey, Mitchell, and Macon counties, in North Carolina, and
our product is so large that we can afford to export it. Other stones,
such as silex, for making glass, etc., are found in profusion in various
parts of the country, but we have no space to enter into a detailed
account of them at present.--_Pottery and Glassware Reporter_.
* * * * *
AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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