Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/452309
AGGREGATES MANAGER February 2015 44 by Bill Langer Bill Langer is a consulting research geologist who spent 41 years with the U.S. Geological Survey before starting his own business. He can be reached at Bill_Langer@hotmail.com "In almost every new settlement, one of the first attempts, is to erect works for the pot and pearl ash manufacture: And there are probably as many works of this kind, as there are settled towns in the state. *** there is no better pot or pearl ashes made in any part of America, than that which is produced in Vermont." Samuel Williams, The Civil and Natural History of Vermont, Vol. II, 1809 The pioneer settlers of Barre, Vermont, by necessity, lived off the land. Most of the area was forested, and the land had to be cleared before farming could commence. But the forest was not entirely an impediment to settlement. The game that was hunted in the forests was the primary source of meat. Maple sugar and honey were abundant sweeteners. Trees felled while clearing the land provided timber for building and fuel. In ad- dition, the forest provided one of the few products that early settlers could sell. Potash. 'Potash' (potassium-rich water-soluble salts) was used during colonial times in making soap, glass, and dozens of other products. Today, potash is a product of mining, but in colonial times, potash was made from wood ashes. The first U.S. patent ever issued was signed by President George Washington and was for "the making of Pot ash." In colonial Vermont, potash manufacture went hand in hand with the clearing of the land. Logs that were not needed for lumber or fence rails were made into potash. To produce a ton of potash, the broadleaf trees on an acre of ground would be cut down and burned, the ashes leached, and the lye evaporated in great iron kettles. Potash sold for $4 to $5 a hundred weight. Another natural resource exploited by settlers was granite. The fields that the settlers cleared commonly were very fer- tile, but they were scattered with granite boulders left by retreating glaciers. The farmers cursed those troublesome rocks that dulled their plow points. As if to exact revenge, many of the boulders ended up in stone walls; others were dressed (shaped) for use as cellar walls, well linings, fence posts, hearthstone, steps, and lentils. Some stone blocks were dragged out for shaping into millstones resulting in giving the moniker "Millstone Hill" to Barre's most prominent hill. The early stoneworker may have worked the rock by heating it with fire and then splitting it by dousing with cold wa- ter or hitting with a large sledgehammer or iron ball. A new procedure was invented during the early 1800s where a line of shallow rectangular slots was cut into the stone using a flat cape chisel. Small, flat steel wedges were placed between shims of sheet iron and driven into these slots, splitting the stone. Around 1830, the method was improved by using a "plug drill" with a V-shaped point that was rotated slightly between each blow of the hammer. This created a round hole 2 or 3 inches deep. A pair of half-round steel shims or "feathers" were placed into the hole, and a wedge or "plug" was driven between the feathers to split the stone. The new splitting technology spread rather rapidly through the granite quarrying centers of New England, facilitating the quarrying of granite from ledges. With the opening of new quarries, Barre began to assume its prominent place in the granite industry. Area pioneers manufactured potash for profit and learned to split the granite that was a nuisance in their fields. LIVING OFF THE LAND Barre Pioneers — Modified from 'Granite splitting tools and techniques,' New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources.