Welsh Slate: Archaeology and History of an Industry1. By David Gwyn

摘要

Slate, a fine-grained metamorphic rock that can be split into fine laminae, went from quarries in Wales to roof the world. By the late nineteenth century as many as a third of all the roofing slates produced worldwide came from Wales, competing with quarries in France and the United States. This book traces the industry from its origins in the Roman period, its slow medieval development and then its massive expansion in the nineteenth century - as well as through its long drawn-out decline in the twentieth.