The peach state - part 1

Georgia - part 1

(Sightseeing)

January 20, 2018 - January 23, 2018

En route from South Carolina to Stone Mountain, Georgia we veered off track a bit to the town of Elberton where the Elberton Granite Assoociation has its Museum and Exhibit.  It sounded interesting but we didn't really put two and two together until we got there and realized that much of the granite from this area is used for headstones.  That made it all the more intriguing.  We learned a lot about how granite is quarried and how headstones are made.

Granite is very heavy! (duh!)

We learned the minerals which make up granite.

Granite is pretty hard.

We learned that granite and marble may seem the same but they are very different.

Granite's appearance is influenced by the size and evenness of the grains and by the color and amounts of it's minerals.

We were shocked to learn that about 60 percent of all granite quarried in the Elberton area ends up as waste which they call "grout."  When you think of grout I'm sure you don't think of something that looks like this:

The large pile in the background is the "grout". 
You'd think they could find a use for a lot of that material!

Quarrying methods have changed dramatically through the years.  For centuries it was done with bits that were first struck by hand held hammers.  Later the bit was attached to pneumatic or air-powered tools which greatly sped up the process.  This was called channel bar quarrying.

Channel bar drilling tool is powered by pneumatic or air tools.

Oxygen burning equipment used for jet piercing method of quarrying. 
The flame leaves the burner at TWICE the speed of sound and generates heat in excess of 2800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Air burning equipment used for jet piercing method of quarrying. 
This advantage of this equipment is that it is lightweight making it portable.
The flame leaves the burner at FIVE times the speed of sound and generates heat in excess of 2800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Picture of water jet method of quarrying.
The water is pumped through pin size holes at about 40,000-80,000 pounds per square inch causing the granite to shatter.

Have to put in a word about the creation of headstones for my genealogical friends!  Apologies to the rest of you.

Typical headstones are created in about 6 steps.

Step 1: An appropriately sized polished marker is chosen.

Step 2: A rubber stencil is glued to the marker.  The inscription and carving is rubbed from the layout to the stencil

Step 3: The inscription panel and carving outline are cut by hand or machine and then pulled from the stencil.

Step 4: The inscription and carving area are frosted off.  The shaped carving area is indented as needed.

Step 5: The stencil is put back on the marker and the outline of the lettering and carving cut out.

Step 6: The lettering and carving are sandblasted approximately 1/4 inch deep.  Only the lettering and carving is affected because the stencil protects the rest of the stone.

The finished marker.

Not only did we spend too much time at the granite museum, we got off our route on our way to Stone Mountain, causing us to arrive after dark.  That is never a good situation when trying to find a spot and get situated at a campground.  It puts the crank into crankiness!

Stone Mountain is a massive, with a capital M, (per Wikipedia)"quartz monzonite dome monadnock." I thought it was composed of granite but quartz monzonite contains 5 - 20 percent quartz whereas granite contains over 20 percent quartz.  Geology is complicated!  Per Wikipedia a monadnock is an "isloated rock hill, know, ridge, or small mountain that rizes abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain." 

View of Stone Mountain from the nearby campground on it's east side.
This is the narrow side of the mountain.

This view of the mountain is taken from the area of the amusement park on the north side.
The mountain is so massive you cannot get the entire mountain in the picture.
The bas-relief in the center (the largest in the world) depicts the Confederate figures of Jefferson David, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

Close up of the bas-relief started in 1923 by sculptor Gutzon Borglum (of Mount Rushmore fame), continued by sculptor Augustus Lukeman from 1925-1928 and completed by Roy Faulkner from 1964-1970.

You can hike or ride the tram to the top.

There are numerous activities around the mountain and it is a very popular place for local residents to walk the trails.

Since we were relatively near Atlanta we drove into the city to see the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park but our timing was bad!  It happened to be the during the 1st brief government shut down so the visitor center was closed.  Right across the street however we found the rest of the exhibits were open.

Birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.  The home belonged to his maternal Grandmother.

The eternal flame which symbolizes the "continuing effort to realize Dr. King's ideals..."

The graves of Dr. King and his wife Coretta Scott King.

The sign for the original Ebenezer Baptist Church where both Dr. King and his father were ministers.

The original Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The new Ebenezer Baptist Church

Sadly Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 and, 50 years later, we still have not achieved even one of his goals.

We braved the traffic again, going into Atlanta a second time to see a museum devoted to the making of paper located on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

We discovered that many different items have been used as "paper" through the decades.

The use of papyrus dates back beyond 5000 years!  The inner pith of the stalk is cut into fine strips and pounded together into strips.  A second layer of the pitch is then laid at right angles to the first.  The two layers are then pounded into a flat sheet which is then polished smooth with a stone.

Rice pith paper is made from the pith of the rice paper plant.  In this instance the pith is cut spirally rather than longitudinally 

Tree leaves are trimmed, flattened, polished with stone and cut to a consistent size.  Characters are scratched into the surface then filled with pigment.  The pigment is then wiped off the smooth surface leaving it in the scratches.

The inner and outer bark of the white birth has been used by many cultures to record symbols and writings.

Tapa paper is made from the beaten inner bark of the paper mulberry tree.

Parchment (made from the flesh side of a sheep skin) and vellum (made from the
skin of calves, goats or lambs) were used as a form of paper.
(And I always thought parchment and vellum were actual paper products!)

Other materials used to create "paper" were fibers from hemp, rattan, mulberry, bamboo, rice straw, seaweed, kozo, gampi and many other plant fibers. The art of making paper spread from China around the world.  Only later was paper made from materials we are more familiar with today - i.e. rags and wood pulp. 

The first step in making paper is to reduce the raw material into pulp.  Stamping machines initially powered by humans or animals, later by water and finally by machines were used to pound the raw materials.

In the video the stamper is shown pounding plain cotton rags but the actual process of preparing the rags was extensive.  The rags were initially washed to remove any dirt.  Cotton rags were separated from linen rags and any stained pieces of material were removed.  Buttons and hooks were also removed.  The rags were then sliced with a long blade to produce 3 to 4 inch strips.  The strips were then rolled up with lime and left to rot for about 3 months.  The rolled up rags and lime were then placed in the stamper with water which beat the cloth into fibers and finally into a pulp.

The individual who dips the frame into the pulp mixture is call a vat man.  He hands the frame to the coucher who
transfers turns the mold upside down and presses the paper onto a felt pad.  When the pile of paper and
felt pads reaches about two feet tall it is moved over to a screw press which was used to squeeze the water from the paper.

Screw press.  These presses were one of the most expensive items in a paper mill.

The paper sheets were then pulled off the felts and hung up to continue drying. 
Paper mills generally had 2-3 stories or more to hold the paper as it dried.

Fine quality writing or printing paper was made by treating the paper with a sizing material made out of animal skin and bone which was boiled into a gelatin mixture.  The dried paper was dipped into the mixture then re-dried. It was then polished with rubbing stones or wooden tools. 

Paper making by hand was a very laborious process.  Eventually wood pulp replaced cotton and linen rags as the substrate for paper and machines were developed that made paper mechanically.  With the advent of the computer we thought we would be a paperless society but instead we use more paper than ever.

In addition to paper making the museum also examined printing processes through the years including movable type, lithography, sterotype, stop cylinder press, rotary press, linotype, xylography, intaglio and others.  I found it all very interesting and I'll leave you with information from the final section of the museum.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!