THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY 



165 



Thus far we have attempted to review, in the briefest manner, 

 some of the earlier potteries in the United States. The space at 

 command has only permitted the bare statement of facts relating 

 to the condition of the ceramic industry down to the period just 

 preceding the Centennial Exposition of 187G. It has not been 

 possible to refer to many establishments whose record would be 

 necessary to a full history of the development of this art. Let 

 us now see what progress has been made in the methods em- 

 ployed in this country down to the present time. 



The potter's wheel used well into the present century was a 

 clumsy and primitive affair. It consisted of a perpendicular 

 beam, generally about two feet in height, surmounted by a circu- 

 lar disk a foot or so in diameter. At the lower extremity of the 

 beam or axis was a horizontal wooden wheel, four feet across, 

 possessing four inclined iron spokes which extended from the 

 beam to the rim of the wheel, which the workman pushed around 

 with his feet. He sat on a framework behind the wheel, while in 

 front were piled the lumps of clay to be manipulated. 



Fig. 13. — Old-fashioned "Throwing Wheel." 



A great advance was made in potters' machinery a few years 

 later, or in the first quarter of the present century, when the 

 " throwing wheel " was introduced into the more prominent fac- 

 tories. This was composed of a plate or disk which was revolved 

 by means of a belt which passed around two spindles and ex- 

 tended to a large vertical wheel operated by a crank in the hands 

 of a second person. This upright wheel usually measured four, 

 five, or more feet in diameter, dej)ending on the rate of velocity 

 desired ; the larger the wheel, the greater the speed to be attained. 



