788 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



New York fire clays 



Tho-ugh there are several fire brick factories in the state, all with 

 one exception obtain their clay from ISTew Jersey. The ISTew Jer- 

 sey fire clays, which are of Cretaceous age, extend in a belt across 

 'New Jersey and over on Staten Island, and it is at the latter locality 

 that the refractory clays of New York state occur. The fire brick 

 factory of B. Kreischer's Sons is located on the southwestern shore 

 of Sftaten Island at Kreischerville. They manufacture fire brick, 

 cupola brick and gas retorts. Most of the clay used is obtained 

 from Staten Island, and the rest from New Jersey. Many open- 

 ings have been made in the vicinity of Kreischerville. The deep- 

 est one made was opposite Kilmeyer's hotel. The clay from it was 

 used for fire brick. It is tough, of a whitish color and mottled with 

 yellow, but its thickness is not very great and there is 15 or 20 feet 

 of stripping. This pit has been abandoned. Southwest of it is 

 another pit, but in this the clay, as first exposed, is of a more sandy 

 nature and overlain by about 4 feet of sand. It was bluish in 

 color and was chiefly used for mortar. In recent years, however, 

 this bank has been strongly drawn on and is now of considerable 

 size (pi. 105). The clay consists of an upper 4 feet of bluish 

 clay, stained here and there with iron, while under it is a less sandy 

 variety. Another opening was made near the shore some years 

 ago, known as the " Wier bank ". The material obtained from it 

 was a stoneware clay, and in this pit the clay as exposed in 1892 was 

 10 feet thick, and is overlain by horizontally stratified fine sand. 

 Since then the bed has been worked out. 



In the spring of 1897 a small pit was opened just north of the 

 old one opposite Kilmeyer's hotel. The clay found in this opening 

 is white and extremely refractory. It is also sandy in places, so 

 that two grades are obtained known as no. 1 white, and sandy white. 



The white clay when mixed with water gave a moderately plastic 

 and somewhat tough mass. 38^ of water was necessary to temper it. 

 The air shrinkage was 10^; the air-dried briquettes had an aver- 



