The First West of the Ohio Valley.
How pottery is made - the various processes from clay to the finished product.
For more than a month past, the making of "saggers" has been going on, that they might be ready when the other processes were begun. Monday the making of "slip" will begin, and from that time on all the other operations will gradually commence, as they may be needed to complete the ware and place it upon the market.
The securing of this pottery was a grand thing for Findlay, opening up a new and valuable industry. The plant is a large one, and everything appertaining to it has been built in the most substantial manner, having regard for convenience and durability. It will give employment to a large force of hands, of a superior character, skilled laborers having been selected from the leading potteries of the country, and these men with their families will become identified with our city.
As in the making of pottery is thus inaugurated in our city, the process of
manufacture will prove of interest. At present, Visitors will not be permitted
in the establishment, hence the only insight they will get into the mysteries
surrounding it must be through the observations of those familiar with the
processes. One who has followed the ware from the beginning through all its
stages, furnishes the following account:
The fashioning of pottery from clay may, at the first glance, seem a simple
process. We have all, as children, made mud pies. The mud pie urchin is the
pottery embryo. But when you know that the clay passes through thirty odd
processes or handling before the finished dish is produced, and that it may have
received thirty handlings only to be ruined at the thirty-first, and the
proposition looks somewhat different. The story how a saucer is made is
interesting. Imagine three heaps of stuff that look like ground chalk. These are
china clay, flint and feldspar. They have already gone through certain processes
of calcining, grinding, ect, before they reach the pottery, to fit them to the
use for which they are intended. They are the potter's raw material.
These three materials are mixed in certain proportions, the formula of which is said to be a secret known only to the potters. When I was told this I remember marveling how it could have remained a secret so long when it was known to so many. Still I feel bound to believe it is a secret. Water is now added until the mixture is like thin cream. The cream or "slip" is then passed through a screening process by running it over"lawns" or fine cloths. The impurities are thus removed, and the cream - now containing pure potter's clay only - flows into a vat, from which it is pumped into the presses. These are canvas bags enclosed in shallow trays of wood. The water by pressure is forced though the meshes of the canvas, leaving the clay behind.
When the water is all drained off the trays are opened, the canvas covering thrown back, and the clay in "leaves" or cakes of about the consistency and color of putty, are disclosed. These are rolled up and deposited in the clay vault until the superfluous moisture has evaporated. It is then submitted to the process of "wedging" or beating to expel the air, which if left in would cause the goods to blister during the firing process. It is then ready for the "pressure" to shape, that is, the man who shapes the dishes out of the clay.
The pressure does this with the aid of the plaster mold made by the mold maker, the most important and highest paid of the pottery employees. These molds are of every size and shape, according to the goods to be produced. The most elaborate are those for sanitary use, called plumbers' goods. The hollow ware moulds are made in three pieces - two sides and the bottom. Hollow ware comprises ewers, teapots, sugar bowls, ect.,as distinguished from flat ware or saucers, plates, ect. The saucer moulds look something like a small apple pie, the upper surface of which is modeled with the reverse form of the saucer. This mold is placed on a revolving iron cup called a "jigger,"the pressure takes a lump of soft clay, flattens it out with a blow or two of a plaster stamp until it looks like pie crust, picks it up and flops it over the revolving mold, where with the aid of a curiously-shaped profile instrument or tool, he instantly fashions the clay into the form of a saucer upside down.
A good workman with a boy or two to help him with the molds will fashion many hundreds of saucers daily in this manner. The mold with a saucer on top is then placed on a rack, where, by means of steam pipes it is dried. The saucer is then taken from the mold, the edges trimmed off and the surface sponged smooth. It is then placed in the "green room" for a further drying process.
The man who makes cups is called a "thrower" and he exercises a little more skill and dexterity than the flatware presser in "throwing" the clay up into proper shape. His "jigger" is also of a different form. After the cup is dried it is turned in a lathe and then sponged, when it is ready to accompany the saucer in the "green room".
When the saucer is perfectly dry it is ready for the first or "biscuit" baking. A round vessel of coarse pottery, which looks like an old band box and is called a "sagger" is produced. White sand is placed at the bottom. Then the saucers are ranged in layers, each being covered with sand. When the "sagger" is full strips of common red clay, called "wads," are placed around the rim and the sagger is ready for the kiln.
The kilns are about 20 feet high and 12 across being circular in form. Their size is designated by the number of days it will take to fill them. The one I saw was called a 19-day kiln, because it would take one man 19 days to fill it with saggers. Eight men were at work at it and it was filled in two days and a half. The saggers are placed in piles called "bungs" 20 feet high. The "wads" serve to steady the piles and to keep out the foreign substances, smoke and the like, when the firing begins. On the top of each "bung" an inverted sagger is placed for a like reason. When the kiln is full the opening is bricked up and the fires lighted. The crockery is subject to a heat of 3,000 degrees. Fahrenhelt, for from 48 to 60 hours. Then the fires are put out and the kiln allowed to cool for several days, when it is opened, care being taken not to let the cool air chill the contents suddenly for fear of cracking them.
The next process is that of glazing. The glaze is generally a mixture of water, flint, spar, paris-whate, clay, zinc, lead, boracic acid and soda ash, though sometimes other ingredients are added. In this mixture, looking like thin cream, the saucers are dipped and after drying a short time are ready for the "gloss" kiln. The saggers used for this fire are glazed inside to prevent the porous earth ware from absorbing or "sacking" the glaze from the surface of dishes. Care is also taken to keep the later from touching, lest they stick together in the firing. This is done by means of pins stuck in the sides of the saggers, on the ends of which the rims of the dishes rest. The gloss firing is about twenty-four hours long. Then the fires are drawn, the door opened as soon as possible and the contents removed to the ware house, where the rough points, or "slit marks" left by the pins, are removed and the dishes, except such are to be decorated, are ready to be packed for the market.
