CLAY WORKING INDUSTRIES. 97 



tories, and the clay is mined and washed at the cheapest price and deliv- 

 ered to the stockholders according to their requirements. 



Those works which have only one method of preparation of their 

 clay are usually strong partisans of the benefits of that method. But the 

 candid judgment of the majority assigns to each process its advantages. 



The preliminary preparation of clay does not cut much figure in this 

 country; in some foreign places much stress is laid on the proper weath- 

 ering of the clay, but many of the best works in the United States use 

 the clay absolutely without regard to this point. That weathering has 

 the advantage of slacking the clay down to a fine state of division, and de- 

 creasing the labor of the machinery s is a point generally recognized. 



The Grading Process is the old and standard process of preparation. 

 The simplest device used in Ohio for this purpose, consists of a circular 

 trough about twelve inches wide and twelve inches deep. Either three 

 wheels in echelon or four wheels at equal intervals are made to run around 

 this trough, and their iron tires are forced into the clay by heavy weights 

 of stone or iron resting on the axles. This was devised as a horse 

 power machine, and is still used as such wherever the industry is de- 

 veloped on a small scale ; in larger places, the revolution of the wheel is 

 managed by use of a small engine. 



The improved machine in use for this same purpose in larger fac- 

 tories is variously called a "tracer" or a "chasing mill." 



The principal features are a circular iron pan, stationary on the floor, 

 in which revolves a horizontal, oblong frame, carying heavy iron wheels, 

 about thirty-six inches diameter bytwo inches face, on its two extremities. 

 While this frame is continuously rotated by a vertical shaft with large 

 over-head gear, the wheels are made to work slowly from the circumfer- 

 ence to the centre of the pan and return, this motion being actuated by a 

 small pinion working in an endless rack. Thus the wheels are made in 

 the course of one complete round of the pinion to cover successively every 

 point in the floor of the pan. A charge of clay consisting of one thous- 

 and to two thousand pounds is dumped in, wet with buckets of water 

 and ground from one to two hours. 



The expenditure of power is very heavy compared to the results 

 achieved. The character of the work done, is everywhere urged as the 

 chief recommendation of the machine. The grinding part of the process 

 has much less to do with securing this, than the kneading and stirring 

 caused by the wheels and scrapers as they revolve; and another point of 

 undeniable weight, is the fact that each panful of clay is homogenous and 

 of even temper. 



These machines are made by several shops around Akron. Messrs 

 Taplin, Rice & Co., and the Turner, Vaugh & Taylor Co., of Cuyahoga 

 Falls, both have a high reputation for the perfection they have attained 

 in the manufacture of these machines. 



In one or two works in the state a new departure has been inaugu- 

 rated, in the use of the same kind of wet pans that are employed in sewer 

 7 GO 



