The miners were familiar with explosives plus they did not have the capital for machinery. The machinery reduced waste because blasting damaged a lot of the surrounding marble. Cutting a block involved a channeling machine (consisting of several drill bits and powered by electricity or steam) that made vertical holes from the top down. Next the bottom was cut by drilling horizontal holes. The block was then freed from the mountainside by inserting wedges into the horizontal holes, then inserting feathers until the block broke free. Sometimes in winter, water was poured into the holes so the expansion of the freezing water would break the block loose. Sometimes a wire saw would cut the quarried block inside the quarry into individual blocks before it was lifted out. Lifting out of the quarry required a hole to be made through the block so a cable could be inserted to pull the block away so other cables could be attached for lifting out of the quarry. The lifting was done with wooden derricks above and outside of the quarry or the 50-ton electric hoist if in Quarry 2 (which was Quarry 3 during the boom period of 1905 to 1916). Once out of the quarry, a block was moved to a loading station for transport to the mill site. The first method (1906 through 1909) used the 50-ton electric hoist, which lowered the block down and onto a Pea Vine cable-powered cart. The cart then moved on rails with downgrades to 54% to a loading station where the block was transferred to a wagon for towing to the mill site. The wagons were first towed by teams of four horses then in 1908 by a 110-horsepower steam tractor previously used for logging. The road to the mill site was built in the 1890s by John Osgood to his quarry, which was just below the CYMC started quarry. By 1910, the method changed with the 50-ton hoist attaching a block to an overhead cable for lowering to a new loading station. Here the block was placed on a flatcar for towing by an electric tram (designed by General Electric) on standard-gauge railroad track to the town of Marble and into the mill site. Electricity to power the tram came from the CYMC-built hydro-electric plant located just east of the town. Reaching the mill site, the marble went into an expansive finishing mill built