Granite Works, Aberdeen
be shaped and polished. These have a grain and colouring absolutely different from what is characteristic of the native stone, and the taste for novelty and variety has prompted their importation. In 1909 as much as 27,308 tons were imported in this way. Celtic and Runic crosses, recumbent tombs, and statuary are common as exports.
The stone is also used for the humbler purpose of street paving and is shipped to London and other ports in blocks of regular and recognised sizes. These are called “setts,” and of them 30,000 tons are annually transmitted to the south. Stones of a larger size are also exported for use as pavement kerbs.
The presence of quarries is not so detrimental to the atmosphere and the landscape as coal mines, and yet the heaps of débris, of waste and useless stone piled up in great sloping ridges near the granite quarries, are undoubtedly an eyesore. To-day a means has been found whereby this blot on the landscape is partially removed. The waste débris is now crushed by special machinery into granite meal and gravel, and used as a surface dressing for walks and garden paths—a purpose it serves admirably, being both cleanly and easily dried. Not only so but great quantities of the waste are ground to fine powder, and after being mixed with cement and treated to great pressure become adamant blocks for pavements. These adamant blocks have now superseded the ordinary concrete pavement just as it superseded the use of solid granite blocks and Caithness flags. This ingenious utilisation of the waste has solved the problem which was beginning to face many of the larger quarries, namely, how they could dispose of their waste without burying valuable agricultural land under its mass.
Granite is the only mineral worthy of mention found in the county. Limestone exists in considerable quantities here and there, but as a rule it is too far from the railway routes to be profitably worked. It is, however, burned locally and applied to arable land as a manure. In the upper reaches of Strathdon, lime-kilns are numerous. By means of peat from the adjoining mosses the limestone was regularly burned half a century ago. To-day the practice is dwindling. A unique mineral deposit called Kieselguhr is found in considerable quantity in the peat-mosses of Dinnet, on Deeside. It is really the fossil remains of diatoms, and consists almost entirely of silica with a trace of lime and iron. When dried it is used as a polishing powder for steel, silver and other metals; but its chief use is in the manufacture of dynamite, of which it is the absorbent basis. It absorbs from three to four times its own weight of nitro-glycerine, which is the active property in dynamite. As found in the moss it is a layer two feet thick of cheesy light coloured matter, which is cut out into oblong pieces like peats. When these are dried, they become lighter in colour and ash-like in character. The Dinnet deposits are the only deposits of the kind in the country. Inferior beds are found in Skye. The industry employs 50 hands during the summer months, and has been in operation for 28 years. The beds show no sign of exhaustion as yet, and the demand for the substance is on the increase.
13. Other Industries. Paper, Wool, Combs.
The industries apart from agriculture, work in granite, and the fisheries are mostly concentrated in and around the chief city. These, although numerous, are not carried on in a large way, but they are varied; and there is this advantage in the eggs not being all in one basket that when depression attacks one trade, its effect is only partial and does not affect business as a whole. Paper, combs, wool, soap are all manufactured. The first of these engages four large establishments on the Don and one on the Dee at Culter. Writing paper and the paper used for the daily press and magazines as well as the coarser kinds of packing paper are all made in considerable quantity. Esparto grass and wood pulp are imported in connection with this industry. Comb-making is also carried on, and the factory in Aberdeen is the largest of its kind in the kingdom.
Textile fabrics are still produced, but the progress made in these is not to be compared with the advances made in the south of Scotland, where coal is cheap. Weaving was introduced at an early period by Flemish settlers, who made coarse linens and woollens till the end of the sixteenth century, when “grograms” and worsteds, broadcloth and friezes were added. Provost Alexander Jaffray the elder in 1636 established a house of correction—the prototype of the modern reformatory—where beggars and disorderly persons were employed in the manufacture of broadcloths, kerseys and other stuffs. A record of this novelty in discipline survives in the Aberdeen street called Correction Wynd.
In 1703 a joint-stock company was formed for woollen manufactures at Gordon’s Mills on the Don, where a fulling-mill had existed for generations, and where the making of paper had been initiated a few years earlier. The Gordon’s Mills developed the manufacture of cloths of a higher quality, half-silk serges, damask and plush, and skilled workmen were brought from France to guide and instruct the operatives. To-day high-class tweeds are made at Grandholm, and such is the reputation of these goods for quality and durability that in spite of high tariffs they make their way into America, where they command a large sale at prices more than double of the home prices.