FIELD TRIP

While it could be argued that when you are out on a field project like this you are, in fact, on one big field trip (like the ones you used to take while in kindergarten while being forced to hold hands with that girl classmate that you did not much care for), we actually went on a short side trip to a marble quarry before we left Sant'Andrea Di Conza.

All of the flooring in the building where the station was installed in Sant'Andrea were marble.  The structure of it was quite interesting.  It turned out that the marble came from a nearby quarry.

The quarry was on the south side of the ridge that Sant'Andrea was on, and was about 2 kilometers from town.

This particular quarry produced marble that was a conglomerate of stones of varying size.

Large sections of the ridge of rock in the area were removed by first drilling a hole through the ridge at about ground level in the picture below.

A platform capable of moving on tracks with a motor operating a spinning wheel was then placed near the hole.  One end of a steel cable with diamonds imbedded in it was run from the wheel, through the hole, up over the top of the ridge, back down to the wheel and joined with the other end of the cable.  The cable was placed in the groove on the wheel, the platform was moved back until the cable was tight, the motor was turned on, and the cutting was started.  The whole apparatus was moved backwards to keep the cable tight as cutting progressed.  I didn't find out how long it actually took to make a complete cut, but I would guess it took days.

The large sections of rock are taken to a rock saw where they are then cut into the required slabs and rough shapes.

As if our Lancia was not already stuffed with enough equipment, and us, we couldn't help leaving without making off with a few chunks of marble.

Aldo Iannece was the owner of the quarry and was kind enough to give us quite a tour.

DIRECT LINKS TO THE PAGES:
ROMAN HOLIDAYS
ROMA
ON THE ROAD
GROTTAMINARDA THE TOWN
PARTS
GROTTAMINARDA THE STATION (GROM)
SANT'ANDREA DI CONZA (SACO)
FIELD TRIP
MONTELLA
VENOSA (VENO)
MINERVINO (SX11)
PIETRAGALLA (SX17)
SAN GIOVANNI a PIRO (SGIO)
CAPACCHIO VÉCCHIO (CAVE)
COSENZA
COCOZZELLO (CO2)
BEATEN
CETARAO (SIMO)
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
SAN MARCO la CATOLA (SMLC)
RETURN TO MINERVINO
CASTEL del MONTE
CENTRO RICERCHE BONOMO (CRB)
CASTELLANETA
CRACO (CRAC)
RETURN TO MONTELLA (MONT)
THE DATA GAME
MOCCONE (MC2)
SILVANA MANSIO (SILV)
CAMPANA I
SAVELLI (SAVE)
CAMPANA (CAMP) II
ALTOMONTE (ALTO)
POMPEII and VESÚVIO
STILL ON THE ROAD
RETURN TO CASTEL del MONTE
MOLITERNO
POLLA (POLA)
TRICÁRICO (TRIC)
ARRIVEDERCI

2006-Jul-30