2023-07-24 06:00:08
Switzerland is a hub for commodity trading. Did you know that this activity represents 4% of Swiss GDP, and even 22% of tax revenue for the canton of Geneva. This week, we’re talking regarding the slate. We will discuss the history of slate and its use. Then, we will see that we can visit a slate mine in Engi (GL) in Switzerland.
This gives us the opportunity to admire the medallion (sculpture) above: Louis XVI. Laurel wreath by Pierre-Simon-Benjamin Duvivier, which dates from the 18th century and which is kept at the Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris.
When we say the word “blackboard”, we all immediately think of our teachers writing with chalk on this surface. But did you know that this object takes its name from the locality of Lavagna, in Liguria, where there is one of the oldest and most profitable quarries for the extraction of slate, a metamorphic rock of sedimentary origin used precisely to make furniture for our schools?
And that’s not all ! Thanks to its specific characteristics, slate is a widely used material in many sectors, from architecture to construction, from art to design.
Historical data
It is believed that slate was first used around two thousand two hundred years ago in the Tigullio region, between the municipality of Lavagna and the Fontanabuona valley, in Liguria.
Its use predates Roman rule. In fact, in Chiavari, near Lavagna, a necropolis has been discovered made up of tombs entirely made with this material.
Its use as a roofing material dates back to antiquity and reached its peak in the Middle Ages and then in the Renaissance.
The first deposits exploited intensively from the 12thth century are those of Uscio and Recco, in the valley of Fontanabuona. Other deposits have been located in the Cuneo region (Piedmont) and in Valle Camonica (Lombardy). Recently, slate has experienced a revival in its architectural use for the restoration of historic buildings, furnishing, and interior finishing and embellishment.
Uses of slate
Slate is traditionally used for roofs, interior and exterior floors, doors, stair treads and, of course, school blackboards. It also has mechanical properties that make it an ideal surface for billiards. Indeed, since its invention by the Egyptians, billiards had a wooden top. In 1826, a London manufacturer replaced the 10 cm thick oak plank with a 5 cm thick slate plate, thus improving weight, elasticity and resistance.
It is precisely billiards, especially from 1950, which constituted the main use of slate, favoring a considerable outlet on the American market.
In recent decades, thanks to the technological development of companies in the sector, slate has also entered the world of interior and home decoration, with shelves, table tops, benches and various types of objects. Technological development, together with the expansion of processing possibilities, has allowed slate to reach levels of commercial competitiveness that were impossible to achieve with completely manual processing.
Slate mine in Engi (GL)
The slate mine in Engi (GL) organizes tours. This mine gave life to the valley between the XVIIth and the XXth century. The plates were exported as far as Holland and England. Closed in 1961, the mine is now a tourist attraction in the region.
In the same series, “Raw materials and art”:
- Cereals and Van Gogh
- Coffee and culture
- Cotton and Edgar Degas
- Cocoa and Luis Meléndez
- Sugar and Sartre
- Copper and Chardin
- Steel and Gayle Hermick
- Corn and Jean Mortel
- Biogas and Victor Hugo
- Hydrogen and the aerostatic globe
- The wind, Da Vinci and Monnet
- The Sun and Firedrich
- L’or et Klimt
- Barley and Antiquity
- Le soja et Seikei Zusetsu
- L’aluminium et Jule Verne
- Le riz and Morimura Gitō
- Money and the Elblag Museum
- Tin and Jean Trek
- Oats and Géricault
- Milk and Vermeer
- Water and Renoir
- Potato and Millet
- Lapis lazuli and the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua
- Honey and Cosimo’s Stone
- The Sorbet and the Ottoman Sorbet Vendor
- Spices and the Moluccas
- Marble and the Venus de Milo
- The Olive Tree and the Painter of Antimenes
- The paper and a woodblock print of the Tiangong Kaiwu
- La laine et Jakob Jordaens
- Vanilla and the Florentine Codex
- Tea and its legends
- Salt and Saline de Bex
Source :
Historical notes, properties and use of slate (ardesiademartini.com)
Landesplattenberg | Switzerland Tourism (myswitzerland.com)
Photo credit : Duvivier, Pierre Simon Benjamin (Paris, 05–11–1730 – Paris, 11–07–1819), sculptorCC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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#Raw #materials #art #Duviviers #slate #medallion
