CAMOUFLAGE FROM QUARRY WASTE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 18, 27 October 1942, Page 4

CAMOUFLAGE FROM QUARRY WASTE

BRITAIN USING UP MILLIONS OF TONS OF SLATE RUBBLE Britain is turning into camouflage, paint millions of tons of waste which have been piling up through the centuries around the slate quarries of Cornwall and Wales. I!n making tiles or slates, time is more cosily than the raw material. If a piece of slate rock does not split easily into the shape required it is thrown aside. Huge slabs of rock, moreover, lie where they were thrown up at the dawn of time, in such a position that they cannot, be worked. Colour fancies add; to the heap of actual rubble? any slate with a pinkish tint is usually re-» jcetcd. All told, for every ton of finished s'.ate produced there may be anything from 6cwt to 7 tons of waste.

The resulting accumulation is enormous and for j r ears it has been worrying the mineral experts. The war has found several usos for it. Ground into a specially coarse powder of between 40 and 8.0 mesih, it goes to the making of camouflage paint. In finer form, up to 300 mesh, it is a useful filler used as a a undercoat for metallic surfaces. And it also appears, as a cheap distemper in roofing felt, to take the place of tiles for the >var factories.