1 pp 1960
Sketch of loading grounds at Bunker Hill ledge, West Quincy. Tools and leverage devices designed by Solomon Willard were forged in shed in lower right corner of sketch in one of the two forges therein. There were two quarries in the Ledge at the left, from which oxen hauled the stones. Dressing was done at waist height with multi-bladed bush hammers and with single-bladed peen hammers wielded against the vertical surfaces of the blocks. Each successive stone had to be shaped to a slightly smaller size; as calculated by a patternmaker, probably working in the enclosed shed at the center of the drawing. He was paid $1.19 a day. There were about 30 hammerers, paid $1.73 a day. The largest blocks of stone weighed 9 tons; but the average load on the cars was 6 tons. The railway included the world's first turntable, also invented by Bryant. However, only the first 36,000 cu. ft. of dressed stone were carried thus. The remaining 51,000 were hauled by ox-team directly from the quarry all 12 miles to the monument. In reality the stone that went by rail to the waterfront, was shipped in flat-bottomed scows and towed by tugboat, the Robin Hood, to Charlestown's Devens Wharf.
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