238 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



hoppers on the floor above. They are then fed to a pug mill 

 which mixes the clay and shale, and the pugged material is fed 

 directly to a stiff-mud machine. As the bar of plastic mixture 

 issaes from the machine it is cut up into slabs which go to the 

 molding room. The Celadon Terra-Cotta Co. has six hand- 

 power machines with a daily capacity of 1,500 each. As the slab 

 of clay comes up from the stiff-mud machine it is taken by the 

 workman who with a wooden tool pound a broad shallow groove 

 in one surface, and then passes it to a second workman who puts 

 it in the machine where it is pressed into shape] between two steel 

 dies, which are heated by steam. The repressed tile is taken 

 from the machine by a lifter having two flat steel prongs and laid 

 on a plaster frame held in readiness by a third workman. The 

 latter hands it to another who trims the edges of the green tile 

 with a knife. The tile and plaster frame are set on the racks in 

 the drying room until placed in seggars for burning. Burning 

 requires seven days, and is done in cupola kilns. The company 

 also has a steam power tile pressing machine which has a daily 

 capacity of 15,000. Tests of these tile were made at Columbia 

 college and they showed a crushing resistance of 40,000 lbs. per 

 square inch. The tiles are made of many patterns, and each 

 style required a plaster frame to fit its shape, while drying. 



Appendix 



Since the foregoing report was written in the latter part of 

 1892, there have been a few changes in the clay industry of New 

 York that deserve mention. 



In the manufacture of common brick, which constitutes the 

 chief branch of the industry in this State, there has been little 

 change; some of the manufacturers are substituting coal for wood 

 as a fuel for kilns, and a few have given up open air drying and 

 are using artificial means, in addition to those already doing so. 



There were published in the Engineering News for Dec. 13, 

 1894, an exhaustive series tests of building and paving brick, 

 many of the samples tested being from New York State. 



The use of shale is steadily increasing. A paving brick plant 

 with a daily capacity of 180,000 has recently been erected at 

 Catskill, N. Y. The shale used is brought from Cairo, ten miles 

 distant. 



