Slate
Located in Tempe, Arizona serving
Tucson, and all of the Phoenix Metropolitan area including Gilbert,
Chandler, Scottsdale, Mesa and Glendale Kaiser Tile Brick, Stone and
Wood is able to supply all of your slate, slate pavers, and slate
landscaping needs. Below is a short synopsis on the history of slate.
What is Slate?
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock
derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or
volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. The result is a
foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original
sedimentary layering. Slate is frequently grey in colour especially when
seen en masse covering roofs. However, slate occurs in a variety of
colours even from a single locality. For example slate from North Wales
can be found in many shades of grey from pale to dark and may also be
purple, green or cyan.
Chemical Composition
Slate is mainly composed of quartz and muscovite or illite, often
along with biotite, chlorite, hematite, and pyrite along with, less
frequently, apatite, graphite, kaolin, magnetite, tourmaline, or zircon
as well as feldspar. Occasionally, as in the purple slates of North
Wales, ferrous reduction spheres form around iron nuclei, leaving a
light green spotted texture. These spheres are sometimes deformed by a
subsequent applied stress field to ovoids, which appear as ellipses when
viewed on a cleavage plane of the specimen.
Uses of Slate
Slate can be made into roofing slates, also called roofing
shingles, installed by a slater. Slate has two lines of breakability:
cleavage and grain. This makes it possible to split slate into thin
sheets. Fine slate can also be used as a whetstone to hone knives. Due
to its thermal stability and chemical inertness, slate has been used for
laboratory bench tops and for billiard table tops. In 18th and 19th
century schools, slate was extensively used for blackboards and
individual writing slates for which slate or chalk pencils were used.
Because it is a good electrical insulator and fireproof, it was used to
construct early 20th century electric switchboards and relay controls
for large electric motors. British sculptor Stephen Kettle is notable
for his use of slate to create statues housed in the Science Museum in
London.
Slate tiles are often used for interior and exterior flooring ,
stairs and wall cladding. Tiles are installed and set on mortar and
grouted along the edges. Chemical sealants are often used on tiles to
improve durability and appearance, increase stain resistance, reduce
efflorescence, and increase or reduce surface smoothness. Tiles are
often sold gauged, meaning that the back surface is ground for ease of
installation. Slate flooring can however be slippery when used in
external locations subject to rain.
Slate tiles were used in 19th century UK building construction
(apart from roofs) and in slate quarrying areas such as Bethesda there
are still many buildings wholly constructed of slate. Slates can also be
set into walls to provide a rudimentary damp-proof membrane. Small
offcuts are used as shims to level floor joists.
Slate is often used as a decor in freshwater aquariums. Slate will
not alter the chemistry of water (except in the slate containing
feldspar which may leach silicates into the water resulting in excess
diatom growth in marine aquaria). When broken, slate produces a natural
appearance while remaining relatively flat and can be easily stacked.
Silicone glue
Slate Extraction
Historical Pit Vogelsberg 1 at FellSlate-producing regions in
Europe include Wales (see slate industry in Wales), Cornwall (famously
the town of Delabole), and Cumbria (see Burlington Slate Quarries,
Honister Slate Mine and Skiddaw Slate) in the United Kingdom; parts of
France (Angers, Anjou and in the Maritime Alps); Belgium (formerly);
Liguria in northern Italy especially between the town of Lavagna (which
means chalkboard in Italian) and Fontanabuona valley; Portugal
especially around Valongo in the north of the country; Germany's (Moselle
River-region, Hunsrück, Eifel, Westerwald, Thuringia and north-Bavaria);
Alta, Norway (actually schist not a true slate) and Galicia. In the
Americas, slate is found in Brazil (the second biggest producer of
slate) around Papagaio in Minas Gerais (responsible for 95% of the
extraction of slate in Brazil), the east coast of Newfoundland, the
Slate Belt of Eastern Pennsylvania, and the Slate Valley of Vermont and
New York. The area around Granville, NY, is one place where colored
slate (non-blue) is mined. Others include Wales (purple and formerly
green) and Cumbria (green) in the UK; Brazil (green); China (many
colors); and Newfoundland.[citation needed]
There was also a major slating operation in Monson, Maine during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The slate found in Monson is
usually a dark purple to blackish color, and many local structures are
still roofed with slate tiles. Of many operations there is only one
business currently operating. The output was so great it formed a train
route throughout the woods of Monson and as many as 18 quarries were
made. The roof of St. Patrick's Cathedral was made of roofing slate from
Monson, as was the Headstone of John F. Kennedy.
Slate is also found in the Arctic and was used by the Inuit to make
the blades for ulus. China has vast slate deposits; in recent years its
export of finished and unfinished slate has increased.
Located in Tempe, Arizona and
serving Tucson, and all of the Phoenix metropolitan area including
Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, Mesa and Glendale Kaiser Tile Brick,
Stone and Wood is able to supply all of your slate, slate pavers, and
slate landscaping needs.
From Wikipedia