Du vent pour scier le marbre

Abstract

In the heart of Causses, a few kilometres east of Félines-Minervois, a marble sawmill was built in the Griotte marble mining area; there were several quarries, operating surveys, dwellings for the quarriers and a carting path for the rough blocks. The mill, which stands on an artificial foundation along a natural rise, is made entirely from discarded stone from the adjacent quarry. Surprisingly here wind energy was used to activate the mechanism of the now-defunct saws, which smoothed the marble by sand, by abrasion, and cut marble sheets to a thickness of between 1.5 and 2.5 cm: this method of actuation is very particular, and the interesting aspect of the Félines mill. Equally amazing is the silence of the archives, which still don’t enable any precise date for this group, though authors reported its ruinous state in 1892—only toponymic indexes betray if not a construction, at least the use of the mill in the mid-nineteenth century.