Italian Street Paving Trade Card – loosely translated (below): The Paving. Is used for the paving stone with hard limestone, granite, lava, marble, etc. The slabs of...must rest on solid ground and beaten, they are joined together by a waterproof cement. There is little that paving for sidewalks, as this method of paving, comfortable for pedestrians, deviant easily sliding and offers no support for the horses’ feet.

Italian Sandstone Street Paving Trade Card – loosely translated (below): The cobbles of sandstone are 20 to 25 cubic centimeters it poses, usually without bond, on a leveled ground and covered with sand filling the interstices of the same substance and each tile is pressed by dropping a drumstick (?) that known or hie lady (?). The sandstone paving lasts, but it has the disadvantage of being noisy.

Italian Marble Excavation/Quarrying Trade Card – loosely translated (below): 1. Excavation. Civil evolution of man, since ancient times marble was known and used. If it finds evidence in the dolmen, which are the first monuments and the Babylonians, the Aztecs. The Greeks and Romans, who prized material for architectural and artistic works, which have come down to our days. There are almost unknown, however, the primitive systems of quarrying of marble. The modern technique is used for this purpose of various means, suitably selected depending on the quality, hardness and position of arrangement of the marble. To get the material from the bowels of the mountain are also used explosive charges.

In quarries discoveries, as shown by our illustration, it performs the cutting of monolithic blocks by means of the helical wire, consisting of three steel wires wrapped helically on the other one, with a diameter of about 6 mm and length up to 1000 meters. This wire rope, mounted in a closed circuit on pulleys, comes made ​​to slide at a speed of 5 or 6 meters per second, passing in a position of rubbing along the rock to be separated; the line of friction is continuously sprayed from a mixture of water and silica sand which serves as the abrasive. The groove-crack so you ridden it may also deepen gradually over tens of meters, as long as it would lower per square on the first place, in marketable size.

Italian Marble Processing & Transportation Trade Card – loosely translated (below): 2. Transport of Blocks – from the quarries, the transport of the marble deposits to sawmills can be performed with different systems. Formerly they were dropping blocks to the quarry floor making them roll down the slope of the mountain to fend for themselves. This system, called momentum, is no longer used because it causes great damage to the material.

The illustration shows three modern systems used.

The first is by hand, the cheapest and oldest. The blocks from one or two hundred tons are placed on the contention that it is formed by two strong beams of oak or beech, roughly square, with the ends somewhat pointed and curved upwards. The load is restrained with thick ropes of hemp or steel wire, which are the piri stakes driven into the mountain, and slid slowly over wallpaper (?) or hardwood joists, lubricated with soap or tallow to prevent excessive friction and to slide smoothly along the upstream load.

The second system illustrated is the inclined plane that is carried out on a normal railway track, by means of special trucks, on which are loaded blocks, retained with steel cables.

A third transport system, the cable car, with which you can pull down from the mountain blocks up to 20 tons, is usually very expensive for marble.

Inset: an example of – Red Verona

Italian Marble Work & Storage Trade Card – loosely translated (below): Marble Work – 3. Deposits of Crude Blocks – After transport downstream, blocks of marble are usually stacked in large deposits. Here the laborers and masons ensure riquadrarli (?) further, to remove any rough edges making...the face of the blocks, then numbered and cataloged them, in order of quality.

The numerous types of marbles are named according to their physical properties and color, as well as in connection with, often, the places from which they are extracted.

One of the most marbles I have known are White Carrara, Tuscany and the Roman Travertine, Rosso di Verona, the Baveno pink granite, the red Solberga (Swedish), Brazil’s Black, Black Belgian, etc.

The operation of moving blocks of marble out by a crane trestle with fly outside that allow them to withdraw or deposit the same on the carts, trucks or railcars that transport them to the sawmills.

In the box: a copy of – Green Apli.

Italian Marble Processing Trade Card – loosely translated (below): Marble Work – 5. Processing Laboratory – From sawmills, marble slabs pass to the laboratory, to be prepared according to various needs. The great consumption of sawn timber, which is the most economical form for the application of the marble construction, requires a rapid machine that can square the slabs in a very short time to the desired sizes. The circular saw with steel discs at the periphery of carborundum size the slabs with a speed almost equal to that of the wood, and the point of contact between the disc and the marble must be constantly sprayed with water which serves as a lubricant and for cooling.

Other machines piallano, smooth and torniscono marble.

The polishing machine is a machine consisting of a doubly articulated pantograph arm, the end of which is fixed a platò impeller, or abrasive wheel, that by moving in all senses on the plate and then smoothes the shiny (?), with the use of abrasive increasingly tender to the lead that gives it the shine.

The air hammer driven by compressed air at 3 or 4 atmospheres, enabling the operator to maneuver the stone mason who perform the work of the chisel without tiring too. The compressed air is distributed by the compressor through a system of air tubes Mannesmann steel; openings appropriately distributed socket allow to use the pneumatic hammer in all points of the laboratory. We make this system work breakdown, various shapes and decorative elements.

In the box: a copy of – Onyx Italian.

Italian Marble Work – Sawing Trade Card – loosely translated (below): Marble Work – 4. Sawing – To use the marble in the work of cladding and flooring, it is necessary to reduce the plates. This operation was made in ancient times, and until a few decades ago, by sawing by hand, which required an enormous amount of manpower and human energy. At this time slaves were used, then Christians in the Middle Ages, and people condemned to hard labor. In the modern era, the car could eventually replace the man with the multi-frame driven by the driving force.

A number of steel blades without teeth, up to 7 centimeter long and up to 5 meters, with a thickness of 3 or 4 millimeters, make up this frame, under which is arranged the block to be sawn. The frame is impress (?) a movement to and fro by a connecting rod, and cutting is continuously sprinkled with water mixed with sand for abrasion. The work of the machine can continue night and day. Depending on the hardness of the material, the blades descend slowly until the block is reduced into plates, of various thicknesses, from 2 to 6 centimeters. For certain blocks of granite the time required for sawing is up to 40 days. To cut slabs of a thickness greater than 6 cm, is used normally to the helical wire, with a processes analogous to the cutting of the blocks in the quarry.

In the box: a copy of – Rosso Levanto

Italian Marble Application – Exterior Building Trade Card – loosely translated (below): Marble work – 6. Application of the marble – From the workshop, the marble ready for installation goes to the site. The transport is usually by truck, with particular attention to the packing of the slabs, which are almost always 2 or 3 centimeters thick.

The marble is used for cladding, facades, walls in the hallways and bathrooms, stairs, flooring, etc.

Except in the case of granite, exterior coatings are supplied mostly smooth surface or with split slates, while the interiors, where agents do not alter the atmospheric clarity, are coated with polished surface.

For the floors, put themselves in the work sheets with the surface-cut saw, and once established the background switches to cement polishing in place, made ​​with machines portal.

They end with the various phases of marble from the quarry to the place of application, stage slow and expensive, but give the rough stone properties and inimitable qualities, extremely durable.

In the box: a copy of – Repen.