Notes On The Large Blasts At The Glendon Limestone Quarry

SINCE the blast fired August 15th, 1878, which was described by Mr. Clark,* and up to November, 1881, we have fired three smaller blasts, one in the: southwest corner of the quarry and two in-the but-tress of rock Left standing by the first blast rear the mouth of the main gangway. We intended to keep an exact account of the stone thrown down by each blast, but the large quantity required by, the furnaces since the beginning of 1879, and the time taken up by more important matters, have caused this to he neglected, so that it is not possible to separate exactly the, cost and quantity of stone obtained during this time by the old method from that furnished by the large blasts; yet as the latter quantity has beet much greater than the former, some notion of the value of the Jarge-blast plan may be reached by comparing the figures from September, 1878, to November, 1881, with those for times when the old system was exclusively used. Since 1878 wages have been raised, lowered, and again raised, and to get a year of sufficiently large production for fair comparison it is necessary to go back to that ending April, 1872, when wages and supplies were different from present prices and from those of 1878. * Transactions, vol. vii, p. 266.