Marble

a limestone that has become close grained under the influence of heat and pressure. It is simply a fine grained limestone susceptible of receiving a polish. The most celebrated marble in the world is that of Mount Pentelicus in Attica, Greece. The Parian marble quarried in the Isle of Paros was much used by sculptors. The marble best known to the modern artist is that from the quarries of Carrara, Italy. There are excellent marbles in England, the Hebrides, and Algeria, and also in Mexico and eastern Canada. The Rocky Mountain region abounds in ledges of marble that must some day prove very valuable. California has deposits. The marble of Georgia is much used for capitol buildings. Tennessee marble was used extensively for the capitols at Albany and Washington. The famous mausoleum, known as the Taj Mahal, at Agra, India, is built of beautiful marble. The chief seat of the marble industry in the United States is located, however, in the northeastern part. The quarries of Pennsylvania, New York, and especially Vermont, are celebrated. More marble is quarried at Rutland in the last named state than at any other place in the world. Instead of drills and explosives, involving tedious expense and waste of material, channels are cut in the marble ledges by steam power. A ledge is bored and scored like an ice pond. A gang of chisels held in a frame cuts a groove in the ledge, releasing huge blocks of any desired size. Powerful steam cranes remove these blocks from the quarry and place them in position where they may be cut by toothless steam saws into any desired shape or size. The marble output of Vermont alone is valued at $6,000,000 a year.

Marble differs greatly in color, varying from a pure, snowy white to marble that is positively black in color. Parian marble has a waxy appearance when polished. Carrara marble is of a glistening whiteness. Colored marble is made so from an oxide or other impurities. The colored marbles most used are the rosso-antico of a bloodred color; verde antico, which is green; and giallo antico, which is yellow with black or yellow rings. Nero antico is black. Colored marbles were used by the ancients for statuary and for the pillars used in the construction of houses.

White marble is a sort of limestone which has not only become changed in texture by heat and pressure, but it has lost its color. The finest white statuary marble is worth from fifteen to twenty dollars per cubic foot.

See Carrara; Sculpture; Stucco; Limestone