Manual stone quarrying underground

[Brains]

Few minutes of underground quarrying stone. Anyone who has visited the Bath Freestone workings will recognise the techniques, at least in the first section!

 

[Chocolate fireguard]

That is worth watching ALL the way through.
The Health and Safety at Work Act in this country is, I think, 50 years old this month.
Even before 1974 if any employer here had tried to make workers do some of the things shown there would have been trouble.
Some of the stone (and the sparklers!) must go to countries that wouldn't allow their people to do anything like that now.
It makes things a lot cheaper though.

 

[Rob]

That's not stone, it's chocolate!

 

[Brains]

That's not stone, it's chocolate!

Fresh wet oolite can be worked with fingernails... Once it has stood and dried it becomes as hard as bone as the pore-water evaporates, precipitating its soluble mineral load as a cement. Bizarre stuff!

 

[Flotsam]

Those stone workers would be a good addition to a digging team. Brutal work.

 

[ChrisB]

Fresh wet oolite

Is that ooilite in the video? I couldn't match the location of any oolite deposits to the likely countries where it might have been filmed.

Does anyone know what those stone products would be used for?

 

[Brains]

Is that ooilite in the video? I couldn't match the location of any oolite deposits to the likely countries where it might have been filmed.

Does anyone know what those stone products would be used for?

Can't tell the rock type from the video, but the Jurassic oolite of the Bath Freestone was worked like this. So an analogy by myself and an assumption. Later on in the clip the carved blocks are shown being used as a stove or hot plate for domestic cooking

 

[ChrisB]

the carved blocks are shown being used as a stove or hot plate for domestic cooking

Ah yes, got it now. I wondered what that shot was trying to show.