314 



REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886 



of it is an important item, and it is astonishing how readily an expe- 

 rienced workman will cause a stone to take the desired shape through a 

 knowledge of this property. 



yrzra.£o^ 



Drilling holes for splitting stone with plug and feathers 



This process of splitting stone with wedges is said* to have been first 

 brought into general use in this country by a poor mechanic named 

 Tarbox, of Danvers, Mass. Through the influence ot Governor Rob- 

 bins, who stumbled upon samples of his work by the merest accident, 

 this man was induced in 1798 to go to Quincy and teach his art to the 

 quarrymen of that place. So much did the adoption of this simple 

 method facilitate granite working that the price of the cut material 

 dropped within the space of a few months over GO per cent. Prior to 

 this time the stone after being blasted from the quarry in irregular 

 blocks was squared down to the proper size by cutting a groove along 

 a straight line with a sharp-edged tool called an axhammer, and then 

 striking with a heavy hammer repeated blows on both sides of the 

 groove until the rock was broken asunder.f 



* Proceedings American Academy, Vol. IV, 1859, p. 353. 



\ In Pattee's History of Old Braintree-aud Quincy occurs this passage : u On Sun- 

 day, 1803, the first experiment in splitting stone with wedges was made hy Josiah 

 Bemis, George Stearns, and Michael Wilde. It proved successful, and so elated were 

 these gentlemen on this memorable Sunday that they adjourned to Newcomb's hotel, 

 where they partook of a sumptuous feast. The wedges used in this experiment were 

 flat, and differed somewhat from those now in use.' 



As to who can justly claim to be the first to brir g this inethoa of splitting into 



