98 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
The quarrying of granite was revolutionised by the introduction of 
steam power. The pioneer of the new era was the late Mr. John Fyfe, 
the lessee of Kemnay quarry. About the year 1870 Mr. Fyfe invented 
the steam derrick crane. In 1873 he designed and erected at Kemnay 
the first modern cableway or ‘ blondin’ in this country. In subsequent 
years important improvements have been effected in the cableway. The 
successful commercial working of the Aberdeenshire quarries owing to 
their great depth and steepness would be impossible at present without 
cranes and cableways. 
The modern mechanical equipment of the quarries has reached a very 
high standard of efficiency. Pneumatic drills are used for boring the 
holes necessary for ‘ plugging’ and splitting the stones. At Rubislaw 
may be seen the most powerful of quarry ‘ blondins,’ erected in 1928 and 
capable of raising a weight of 20 tons from the bottom of the quarry, 
which has a depth of over 350 ft. 
The total output of the Aberdeenshire quarries in 1932 was over 
402,000 tons. 
The uses and purposes which the quarried granite serves are numerous 
and varied. In the modern quarry practically all waste is eliminated. 
The best quality of granite is used for monumental and architectural 
purposes, and the dressing and polishing of stones for these purposes is 
a separate and special department of the trade. Blocks of somewhat 
inferior quality are used for ordinary building work. Large stones of 
great durability are used in engineering and dock works. Medium-sized 
stones are cut for sills and lintels. Other products are paving setts, 
rubble stone, road metal and crushed granite. ‘The waste debris of the 
quarries, when crushed into gravel, makes an excellent surface dressing 
for walks and garden paths. Great quantities of the waste after being 
ground into fine powder and mixed with cement are used in the manu- 
facture of adamant blocks for paving. 
In Aberdeen and district granite is the material almost universally used 
for building purposes, probably 75 per cent. of the houses in Aberdeen 
being built of the grey granite of Rubislaw. Most of the principal public 
buildings erected in the city within the last sixty or seventy years are 
built of Kemnay granite. Among the most notable of these are Marischal 
College, the Post Office and the Northern Assurance Buildings. Persley 
granite is represented by the War Memorial in Schoolhill and the recently 
erected building of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. 
While Aberdeen granite has been known in the market for upwards 
of a century and a half as a material for paving, harbour works and 
building, the specialty for which in later years Aberdeen has become 
best known is the manufacture of granite for decorative, ornamental and 
monumental purposes. The origin and early development of this 
branch of the industry are mainly due to the shrewdness and perseverance 
of Mr. Alexander Macdonald, who started business in a small way in ° 
Aberdeen about 1820. ‘The published accounts of the polished Egyptian 
granite sent to the British Museum in London by Belzoni, the traveller, 
directed Mr. Macdonald’s attention to the possibility of polishing 
Aberdeenshire granite. He experimented at the outset on a limited 
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