56 Mr H. M. Stoker on the China-stone 
and white; but as this can only be done in summer, and not 
even then if a wet season, it has become necessary that re- 
course should be had to other means: those hitherto em- 
ployed have all required the use of a fuel obtainable only 
from Newport, or some distant coal tract, and hence requir- 
ing considerable outlay, so much so, in fact, that but few 
persons are able or willing to make use of it. The heat, in 
these cases, is applied by means of a large kiln, or by passing 
the clay over a heated drum, neither of which methods could 
be made available in the return of several thousand tons of 
clay annually. 
But it occurred to me that the deleterious floods of the 
winter, or the wind on the adjoining hill, might be rendered 
available as a motor power, provided it could be employed in 
the construction of a kaolin drying-machine. The success of 
my attempts will be best learned by a few turns of the handle 
of the accompanying model made and invented by the author. 
By a machine twelve times the size of the model, two tons of 
clay can be dried completely every five minutes. It consists 
of a number of perforated fans, having on them shelves simi- 
larly perforated, or made of wire-gauze, which are kept ro- 
tating two hundred times a minute, or faster if necessary, by 
the four attached multiplying wheels. These wheel-fans 
have six perpendicular screw-like arms, on each of which are 
a number of transverse shelves for the carriage of the clay, 
where, from the rapid motion of the wheel, and the opposed 
currents of air it causes to be thrown against the clay, it ra- 
pidly becomes dry. 
The fact of doing away altogether with fuel, and the sub- 
stitution of a power which can be obtained with the greatest 
ease, on the occurrence of a very rainy season, render it at 
once a cheap and advantageous substitute, either for the - 
labour at.present employed, or for the still more expensive 
fuel. 
The junks of clay, after being again collected, are now 
piled away in sheds, under a number of thatched gates or 
reeders; or are placed in some sheltered spot, so that they 
may, nevertheless, have a constant current of cold dry air 
surrounding them, and be at the same time kept from rain. 
