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The following excerpt from The Story of Alberene Stone was printed in 1930. While the methods for quarrying and processing have changed in the intervening years, the stone and its wonderful qualities have not. It continues today to be "a stone of peculiar and remarkable qualities".
The Story Of Alberene Stone
There was located and opened in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the late 70’s and early 80’s of the last century, a deposit of stone of peculiar and remarkable qualities. It was weather-proof, heat-proof, time-proof and easily worked – as was proved by Indian bowls and other utensils carved from this material with crude tools of the early aborigines and to be seen today in public museums and private collections. While soft enough to be easily shaped and fabricated, it yet was so dense and close-grained as to have a crushing strength equal to that of granite. It was non-absorbent and non-staining; and, in chemical characteristics, it was acid-proof and alkali-proof.
A Company is Formed
The pioneer in opening and developing this deposit was Mr. John G. Porter Who early saw the commercial possibilities of a material possessing all these unique qualities. Thoroughly convinced of the large potential markets in the industrial, architectural and scientific worlds, he associated himself with a number men in an organization which later became knownas the Alberene Stone Company, with Mr. D. J. Carroll as president; and this material has since been quarried and marketed continuously, for more than 40 years, by this organization under the name “Alberene Stone.”
The Identifying Name “Alberene”
“Alberene” is a name coined from the name of the county (Albemarle) in Virginia where the deposit lies, and from the name of one of the pioneers in its development, Mr. Serene. The original small holdings were increased by the repeated acquisition of other properties along the vein, until today the entire deposit of this exclusive material is owned by the Alberene Stone Company, which quarries it by what is conceded to be the most modern quarry plant in the country and finishes it in its many marketable forms in mills completely equipped with special modern machinery, at Schuyler, Va. Supplementing this are three large branch factories at Boston, New York and Chicago, completely stocked and equipped and with direct rail connections --- important factors in the service this company renders.
The Source of Alberene Stone
The only known deposit of Alberene Stone is this vein, originally opened in Albemarle County and since found to extend into Nelson County adjoining--- approximately five miles in length, of varying widths up to 200 feet, and of unknown depth. Sufficient material is in sight to supply all requirements for Alberene Stone for several hundred years, even at the present rapidly increasing rate of demand. The present holdings of the company comprise over 6,000 acres of land; and the unique and distinctive characteristics of Alberene Stone, combined with the activities of the company, have made these Virginia quarries the source of probably 95 per cent of the natural stone used for the general purposes recognized by all those qualified to judge of quality.
Many deposits of so-called “similar” stone have been prospected, but not one has ever been located having either the characteristics or the extent of the Alberene Stone vein. It is a remarkable tribute to the merits of Alberene Stone to be able to say, with truth, that --- in this “age of substitution” --- no other natural stone, nor any artificial material, combines within itself so many qualities essential for the performance of certain definite and important functions in the fields of industry, science and architecture.
Some of Its Many Uses
In the laboratories of colleges, research institutions and industrial plants everywhere, it is helping in education, in investigation and experiment, in the betterment of processes, and in the maintenance of standards. In hospitals and scientific institutions, it lends its aid in the laboratory processes by which health is conserved and pure foods assured. In electrical construction it provides safety for men and equipment. In the sanitary work in buildings of every description, it is safeguarding health and at the same time providing the maximum of durability. While countless thousands of scholars, students and workers daily go to and from their duties in safety, over stair treads and landings of Alberene Stone.
Geological Classification
Turning now for a moment to technicalities, Alberene Stone is found to belong to that general family of rocks of which talc is probably the most popularly known member. Even as a family, however, these rocks show so wide a variation in composition and in chemical and physical properties, that relationship is often extremely hard to trace. The more valuable “family characteristics” are too often --- with many of the members --- completely hidden by less desirable qualities in the individual. Alberene Stone seems to be that happy child of Nature in which the best is concentrated and the less fortunate traits eliminated.
Alberene Stone is, geologically speaking, a “steatite” --- but it is a steatite with unique and exclusive characteristics possessed, as a group, by no other natural stone nor by any artificial material. It has nothing in common with the talcs, or other prepared or treated materials. It is a natural product, ages in the making, and used as it comes from Nature’s laboratory --- quarried in blocks, sawed into slabs of various thicknesses, and fabricated in units of convenient form and size --- without crushing, grinding, burning, or other processing to change its natural characteristics. In fact, it is in these natural characteristics --- unchangeable --- that its many great values lie.
Historical Photographs
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