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Show How Onyx Is Mined. Onyx is got out in as large blocks as it can be quarried. The quarrying hits to be done with wedges and saws, as it cannot be blasted or dug out with safety. The grain and streaks are so delicate that a blast niipht spoil thousands of dollars' worth. One cave of onyx was ruined by the use of powder. The man who owned the cave started to get out the onyx by the slow process of saws and wedges. He got out several car loads, when the thought struck him that he could take all the onyx out of the cave at one blast. So be put. his men to work and drilled around the cave, arranging bis blast so that be would have 40 000 or 130,000 worth of onyx to ba shipped at once. The drill holes wer charged and the blast was exploded. JCono of tbe onyx was lit for use except in mosaics and such work. There was not a sound bit four feet long in the cave. This taught the other onyx miners a lesson, and no shocks and blasts or detonations are allowed in the cave or in the neigh W-bood W-bood for fcar that the onyx may be cracked or that some small cracks may be enlarged. en-larged. -'ew York Sun. |