The saws are kept going night and day, yet requiring a week to saw a block 6 by 6 by 5 feet. The saws are strips of steel about 3 inches wide and 18 feet long, and do not cut more than 15 inches a day. The blocks usually are sawed into slabs 2 inches by 6 feet by 5, or blocks 1 by 1 by 5 feet. When the sawing has been completed stone-cutters trim and prepare the marble for shipment. An interesting thing I saw was the marble for a pavilion in the Woman's Exhibit at the Atlanta Exposition. Columns, caps, and bases were being prepared.
The columns are first sawed out in blocks about 1 by 1 by 7 feet. Then they are turned on a lathe until they are perfect though rough cylinders. These are polished, first by rubbing sand over them to take off the saw and lathe scratches, and then with three different kinds of grit. After this they are rubbed with a hone perfectly void of grit, and polished with acid. The caps and bases are prepared in the same way, excepting that the blocks are of a different size (almost square, in fact), and that they are turned into their respective shapes. This mill is owned by the Tennessee Producers' Marble Company. The marble quarries of Tennessee are the finest in the United States.
James Maynard, R.T.K.
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Want Corner.
Harold P. Daniels, 73 East 127th Street, New York, collects beetles, and wants to hear from others in the United States and Canada who do the same. M. S. Newman, 722 East Ninth, New York, wants to receive sample copies of amateur papers. Jessie Loomis and Mabel Moreland, Box 156, Creston, Iowa, publish Our Own Idea, an amateur paper of much merit, and they want to exchange with other amateur publishers.
Wallace Gibbs, Galva, Ill., publishes The Sunbeam, a neat eight-page monthly. He offers to send us a morsel on the experiences of an amateur publisher, if we want it. We want it, Sir Wallace. Send it along. Tell us the discouragements, the pleasure, and the advantages. R. L. Miller, Jun., asks if an autograph of President Diaz is wanted by the Table. Yes, it is. Can you favor us with one?