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Power Economy in the Southern Indiana Quarry 



Industry. 



G. C. Mance. 



The limestone quarry industry of southern Indiana offers a fertile field 

 for research alon.c: the lines of conservation. The early operators adopted 

 wasteful methods of production, feeling that the abundance of the deposits 

 would ;,'ive an unlimited supply of first-grade stone. The tendency has been 

 to continue with the old methods and machinery to the present time. With- 

 in the last few years, however, competition has become so keen that manj 

 of the operators of the district have begun to realize the wastefulness of 

 the present methods and to look for more efticient ones. 



The principal losses accompanying the production of building stone in 

 Monroe County can be grouped mxler four heads: 



(1) Losses or seconcr-graGe stone. 



(2) Losses of human labor. 



(3) Losses of lime, cement and fertilizing materials. 



(4) Losses accompanying power production. 



The losses due to inefficient methods of power production are probably 

 the greatest and the most in need of remedial action. The method of 

 power prodi;ction thi-oughout the disti-ict is wasteful in the extreme. Power 

 is generated in a large number of separate units distril)uted over the quarry 

 and there is a great loss of human labor in supplying the coal where it is to 

 be used as well as a great loss of coal due to careless handling. Several 

 qnarrymen have made careful tests upon cbanneling machines, at my sug 

 gestion. to determine the amount of coal consumed by the different types ot 

 machines during a given run. and it has been found that while the Sullivan 

 or Ingersoll channelers cut faster they consume practically twice the 

 amount of coal in a given period of time as the Wardwell type of chan- 

 neler, which is widely used tlirougboiit the district. 



In many of the mills the boilers and engines have been in operation 

 over twenty years and the amount of coal used per horse-power hour is at 



