568 
gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, 
puffins, shearwaters and terns. 
POTTERY PRODUCTS 
Tur makers of pottery in the United States 
reported another record-breaking year in 1917 
in yalue of output, which was $56,162,522, an 
increase of $17,945,280, or more than 16 per 
cent. over the value in 1916, according to fig- 
ures compiled under the direction of Jefferson 
Middleton, of the United States Geological 
Survey, Department of the Interior. 
The imports of pottery during the year were 
necessarily small, and the demand was fully 
equal to the largest domestic supply that would 
have been produced under normal codnditions, 
but the American potters found it impossible 
to supply the demand. Though the value of 
the output was the largest yet recorded, the 
volume of the product was probably not so 
large as it had been in some other years. Few 
plants, if any, ran to capacity, and many of 
them did not market more than three fourths 
of their normal output. The increased cost of 
labor and raw materials made it necessary to 
fix higher prices for the wares than those that 
have prevailed in the last few years. The 
imports showed an increase over those of 1916 
but were much below normal imports before 
the war. This increase was due chiefly to 
greater imports from Japan, whose wares are 
now finding a larger market in the United 
States. 
Notwithstanding the handicaps which the 
pottery industry suffered in 1917, greater 
efforts were made to place the industry on a 
firmer foundation than ever. Realizing that 
after the war he will have the keenest com- 
petition, and knowing that in order to hold 
his present trade he must not only make ware 
of superior quality but must be able to under- 
sell all foreign competitors, the American 
potter has begun to study not only how to im- 
prove the quality of his wares but to find or 
devise labor-saving machines and improved 
kilns. The report of the United States Pot- 
ters’ Association shows that a number of such 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou, XLVIII. No. 1249 
devices that give promise of lowering the cost 
of labor and fuel were introduced in 1917 or 
were being successfully developed. Among 
these devices are sagger-making machines, a 
conveyer type of stove, a casting process that 
makes large production possible by unskilled 
labor, and down-draft and tunnel kilns that 
insure a large saving of fuel. 
The effort to establish in the southern states 
a pottery for the manufacture of high-grade 
ware has, after many years, at last been suc- 
cessful. In 1917, for the first time, white 
ware was manufactured in the south. The 
Southern Potteries (Inc.), began to operate at 
Erwin, Tenn., a 10-kiln plant for the manu- 
facture of semi-vitreous porcelain table ware, 
using domestic clays exclusively. 
Another important development in the pot- 
tery industry of the United States is the pro- 
duction of chemical porcelain, the manufac- 
ture of which in this country was considered 
impossible before the war. Several operators 
are now making chemical porcelain which sat- 
isfactorily meets the exacting requirements of 
the laboratory. 
In 1917 the value of the output of every 
variety of pottery classified by the Geological 
Survey, except red earthenware, was greater 
than in 1916. White ware showed the largest 
increase—$2,729,079, or 15 per cent. Porcelain 
electrical supplies also showed a large increase 
—$2.41'7,166, or 34 per cent. China, the highest 
grade of pottery, has been a minor product in 
value, yet its value in 1917 showed an increase 
of $1,327,534, or 38 per cent., compared with 
1916. Its value in 1917 was nearly twice as 
great as in 1913. 
The value of white ware, including china, 
which comprises the general household wares 
and constitutes more than 45 per cent. of the 
value of all pottery, was $25,726,375 in 1917, 
an increase of $4,056,613, or 19 per cent., over 
1916. If to this sum is added the value of the 
high-grade products sanitary ware and porce- 
lain electrical supplies, the total value in 1917 
was $47,814,178, or $7,998,579 more than in 
1916. 
