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Re the school class visit to a "gravel pit" and the comment about 
drilling without water "because the rock was limestone".

Most of Gibraltar is made of limestone and, certainly when I was
there in 1953 in Tunnelling Troop, Royal Engineers, all drilling 
was done dry -- including that in a three hundred foot long 
eight foot by eight foot heading.  The full round of 20 to 24 holes 
was put in using a Holman Silver Three drill, hand-held ( we 
had one air-leg, but it was broken ).  The "master driller", a lad 
from Derbyshire, formerly a fluorspar mine worker, used to 
emerge at the end of the shift looking like a snowman.  The 
story was that, being limestone, the dust was no problem. 
Certainly, it didn't seem to bother him -- it was what he had 
done at home in Derbyshire, anyway!

What puzzles me is that dry drilling in limestone, and the use
of a cone crusher, should be taking place in what is called a 
"gravel pit".  Was this not a limestone quarry, where the rock
was crushed and screened to produce aggregate?

I would associate the term "gravel pit" with the working of 
a naturally occurring alluvial sand and gravel deposit where 
there was no rock to drill or crush.

Tony Brewis


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