DESCRIPTIVE NOTES OF QUARRY DISTRICTS AND QUARRIES 263 



Medina block. Examples in constructioa are the Delaware 

 Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, Buffalo, and Sibley 

 college, Cornell university, Ithaca. 



Albion, Orleans County.— The largest quarries of Medina 

 sandstone are at Albion. They are east of the town, be- 

 tween the canal and the New York Central railroad. The 

 parties here at work are : Goodrich and Clark Stone 

 Company ; Albion Stone Company, and Gilbert Brady. 

 The stripping on the sandstone is from three to fifteen 

 feet thick. The beds dip a few degrees to the south, and 

 are of varying thickness from a few inches up to six feet. 

 Regular systems of joints facilitate greatly quarrying oper- 

 ations. There is considerable variation in the nature of the 

 stone in the several beds, and even in the same bed, as fol- 

 lowed in the same quarry. Generally it is of a light red 

 color, and finegrained. 



A specimen representing the best building stone, as quar- 

 ried by Mr. Brady, has a specific gravity of 2.598, and a 

 weight (calculated) per cubic foot of 162 pounds. The per- 

 centage of oxide of iron is comparatively low, being 0.51 

 and 0.09 for ferrous oxide and ferric oxide, respectively. 

 The absorption test gave 2.37 per cent. The losses in 

 weight, in the tests with carbonic acid gas and sulphurous 

 acid gas, were 0.09 and 0.29 per cent. The treatment with 

 sulphuric acid, i per cent solution, occasioned a loss 

 of 0.08. The alternate freezing and thawing produced no 

 visible effect. After a subjection to a high temperature 

 and sudden cooling, the strength was but little impaired 

 and the color was slightly changed. 



These quarries employ from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred men, each, and the aggregate product, annually, 

 amounts to many thousands of tons. The bulk of the stone 

 quarried by the Albion Stone Company, and the Goodrich 

 and Clark Stone Company, is used for street purposes, as 

 paving, curbing, gutters and crosswalks. Platforms of large 

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