FLOWER POTS AND THEIR MANUFACTURE. 17 



Idalium, Cyprus, of forms which were supposed to be of PhcBuician 

 manufacture, aud to have extended back over a period of 1,500 

 years before Christ. It would also be interesting to describe the 

 quaint shapes from Dr. Schliemann's collection, taken by himself 

 personally in his excavations on the supposed site of ancient 

 Troy. Through the kindness of the late Professor Horsford, 

 we received the first photographs of those which were sent to 

 America, and had the shapes reproduced here before the originals 

 had reached the museum. 



In telling 3^ou about the manufacture of flower pots, I must 

 confine myself to personal knowledge of the subject, for one 

 might look through the libraries of the country and the encyclope- 

 dias of the world and find himself not a whit wiser about flower 

 pot manufacture at the close of his investigations than at the 

 beginning. 



As I have never visited any such factories in European 

 countries, my information concerning them has been derived 

 mainly from workmen who have come from foreign potteries. 

 They have uniformly felt and assured me that America is always 

 in the lead in regard to all improved machinery. 



Until about 1864 or 1865 common flower pots throughout the 

 world had always been made by hand on the potter's wheel. 

 There had been, indeed, many different forms of this wheel, but 

 it had always been propelled by the movement of either hand or 

 foot, and this meant of course constant actual labor, more or less 

 wearisome. When in the early fifties a wheel was made to be 

 propelled by the foot, with two sizes of pulleys and a balance 

 wheel, whereby the speed of the wheel was increased in the 

 proportion of three to one, it was thought that perfection had 

 been reached. 



Much time, though probably very little money, had been spent 

 previously to this date in attempts to make a pot machine ; and it 

 was left to Mr. William Linton of Baltimore, an experienced 

 practical potter, to perfect and patent the first machine. 



From him we purchased two machines and the exclusive right to 

 use them in this State ; and within a short time we were able to 

 make great improvements upon his patent ; so that I feel perfectly 

 safe in stating that, from time immemorial until down to about the 

 year 1863, flower pots had always been made in one and the same 

 way — by hand, on a potter's wheel. 



