358 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



portion of their support from the bliiestone industry, while in 

 the larger cities outside the bluestone belt hundreds of stonecut- 

 ters are employed in dressing the stone. The wages run from a 

 dollar and a quarter a day for common laborers to three dollars 

 and a half a day for stonecutters, blacksmiths, tool makers, ex- 

 pert quarrymen, and other skilled labor. It would be hard to 

 give a correct estimate as to the exact number of people who 

 profit by the bluestone industry, as its influence is felt in all 

 branches of mercantile trade, in lines of both water and land 

 transportation, and, in fact, every industry throughout the district 

 where the stone is found. To paralyze the bluestone traffic would 

 mean to paralyze all branches of trade throughout that country. 



Fig. 5. Bliestone Sawino and Planing Mills at Kingston', X. Y, 



The bluestone trade amounts to nea-rly three million dollars an- 

 nually, two thirds of which is paid out in wages. 



The manner of working bluestone after it leaves the quarries 

 is worthy of notice. Before it is taken to the docks the stone 

 receives only a superficial dressing. At the docks it is piled up, 

 and such as is needed to fill immediate orders is sent to the cut- 

 ting mills. Here the large slabs are laid on huge bed planers and 

 planed smooth as a board. Others are sent to the saws, which con- 

 sist of a gang of thin strips of plate iron, running horizontally over 

 the surface of the stone. Under the edges of the saws, which are 

 toothless, is kept a supply of wet sand very sharp in grain. The 

 constant grinding of the saws in the sand soon cuts into the stone 

 and rends it into slabs or bars of the rec^uired size. Other stone 



