Extraction of natural stone
Sawn stone
Mechanical progress has enabled rapid and economic exploitation of quarries through the use of wire saws, penetrating or perforating pulleys, and compressed air.
Techniques
The wire saw is made of twisted steel strands and is used to insert a mixture of water and abrasive substances which wear down the rock. This allows the cutting of blocks weighing several hundred tons.
Compressed-air pneumatic hammers are generally used to cut stone masses into blocks of variable weight that can reach 20 to 25 tons.
Rolling bridges and derricks are used to industrialize quarry production and make handling this very heavy material much easier.
Quarries
Did you know?
The wire saw was invented in 1854 by a French engineer, Eugène Chevalier. It was perfected and put into industrial production in Belgium in 1880 by Paulin Gay and Michel Thonar. It is without doubt the most important progress made in the 19th century in operational mechanization.
The principle is as follows: when inserted into rock, a twisted strand of steel carries with it an abrasive substance called service (a mixture of water and silica sand, then silicon carbide or Carborundum), which wears down the rock.