“Marble is crystalline limestone. Most of the limestones of the world are believed to have originated from the accumulation of the calcareous remains of marine animals, such as corals and crinoids, on the bottom of the sea. This material accumulated through long ages, and in great thickness. In many cases they have been subsequently consolidated into limestones and then through earth stresses, under suitable conditions, compelled to crystallize into marble. Most of the marbles of the world belong to the Paleozoic era, the earliest of the geological eras in which there is an abundant record of life. Considering the extent to which modern civilization is dependent upon coal, iron ore and limestone, it is interesting to note that the more important deposits of all three of these materials are referred to the same era. They are all believed to owe their accumulation to organic agencies, either vegetable or animal. It is a theme for philosophical reflection that these three rocks, as the geologist calls them, which are so necessary to modern civilization, were accumulated ages ago by more primitive forms of life, which, so far as we know, flourished and disappeared before the human animal appeared on the scene.
“Marble occurs in endless variety and great abundance. The successful development of a marble deposit is, however, a slow and expensive proposition, and the available supply is dependent upon developed quarries, and not upon the great extent and abundance of deposits. The same agencies made of marble the most beautiful of all the stones available for building purposes, also made it erratic in many ways so that there is always great waste in producing it, especially in the more desirable kinds and grades, and often no commercially suitable stone is obtained until after a great deal of development work has been done. This makes it intrinsically more expensive than many other building stones, but it is a product which is never sold at an exorbitant margin of profit, and it is worth all it costs and more. Possibly if it were less expensive to produce, it might also be less highly prized, notwithstanding its intrinsic beauty.
“Marbles in an endless variety of color and texture are produced in Italy, Greece, Africa, France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Germany and Switzerland in the Old World. The Greek and Italian deposits were worked long before the Christian era.
“It is interesting to note in Pliny’s letters that in the days of the Romans marble was sawed into thin slabs by the same method which is used today; that is, by a strip of iron moved back and forth, using sand and water as an abrasive to wear the sawcut slowly through the marble. Today we have gangs of saws and mechanical feed for the sand and water, so that whereas the Romans sawed off one slab at a time, we can have as many as seventy-five and eighty saw blades working in the same block of marble at the same time. Pliny indignantly condemned the use of marble for the interior of buildings as an unjustifiable waste of money. He also remarked that the Gods having placed marbles up in the tops of the mountains (as they actually did around the Carrara district), it was impious for man to presume to invade the mountain fastnesses and undo the work of the Gods. Notwithstanding his economical and religious objections to this use of marble, he described in a very practical manner how it is sawed, and strongly censures those contractors who delivered for the purpose of sawing the marble, sand of such a coarse grain that the sawcut was made unduly wide and wasted much material in which money was already tied up. Pliny’s condemnation of the use of such a rich and expensive material for the interior finish of buildings was no doubt a good advertisement in those days for the material itself. Just as condemnation of the automobile in these days probably only serves to increase the use of automobiles. Human nature seems to have been much the same in all ages.
“In the United States, marbles have been produced in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, California, Minnesota and Alaska. Marbles are also now being produced from Central America and South America.
“Marbles vary in color from white to black through almost every color and shade of the spectrum. Sometimes they are coarsely crystalline, and sometimes finely crystalline. Almost any marble which can be produced in merchantable form finds its appropriate use somewhere in the market. As a rule, coarsely crystalline marbles are not as attractive as others for polished interior work. On the other hand, many of them are unsurpassed for exterior building work, and for monumental work. To a large extent, the marbles of the United States and of the entire world, for that matter, supplement each other so as to make available any sort of complete scheme that the architect may have in mind. Differences in crystallization gives him a great choice in the matter of texture; differences in coloring and in distribution of coloring makes it possible for him to have almost any color scheme that the mind of man can conceive....”
Missouri
“Missouri produces a variety of marbles generally of a gray or buff gray tone, which take a good polish, and have found already market where marble is desired and cost is a vital consideration. They are generally somewhat less expensive than other marbles of the same general character, and are very satisfactory, although ordinarily some of the imported marbles or some of the Tennessee marbles would be considered somewhat more attractive. Even here, however, there are cases where marbles like the Missouri marbles are more suitable from every point of view than other marbles. So that each variety of marble finds its own sphere of usefulness in which it stands at the head of the list. Of course, there is more or less overlapping, but it is interesting to note that the southern states which are now producing marbles really produce a number of varieties which supplement each other and which are not really competitive, at least not for those uses to which each is best adapted....”