46G 
Hoic to establish a Tile - Yard. 
I may venture to assert from experience that a tile-maker would 
contract to make tiles at a less price by washing the clay than if 
he had to cleanse it from stones by picking and slinging. 
The first and most important consideration in the establishment 
of a wash-mill is a plentiful supply of water, and the next that it 
should be placed as conveniently as may be to the clay which is 
intended to be used ; and that the wash-pits into which the clay 
is run should be as contiguous to the machine as possible. The 
more tenacious clay is, the longer it requires to dry in the pits 
when washed. As a general rule, I should recommend that the 
washing be commenced as soon as the season of tile-making is 
ended, so that the men and boys, as before noticed, who have been 
employed through the s\immer, may be continued during the 
winter ; a great object, and one upon which too much stress cannot 
be laid, is attained by this, over the old system of discharging all 
the workmen as soon as the season for tile-making is ended. A 
plan of the wash-mill is given in the drawing (fig. 2), and maybe 
thus described : — a is the mound of earth, raised sufficiently high 
to give a fall from the clay as it runs from the wash-mill to the pit ; 
B the horse-path ; c the circular trough in Avhich the harrows 
work, 4 feet wide, 2| deep ; d is the centre on which a cart-wheel 
is fixed, with cross-trees e, to which the harrows f f are attached 
by a chain ; one of the cross-trees extends sufficiently far over the 
horse-path b for the horse to draw by; H is the plank upon which 
the clay is wheeled up; k is the trap-door which shuts down 
whilst the clay is being puddled ; l is the grate, with three- 
sixteenths of an inch opening between each bar ; m m the troughs 
by which the washed earth is carried to the different pits ; n the 
pump, which must be used when the water cannot be naturally 
run in ; o is a receiving-pit, into which the puddled clay first 
runs, and from which it flows into other pits. The object of this 
small pit is, that where the clay first falls from the wash-mill 
there is a considerable formation of sand not fit for tile-making, 
Avhich is left in this pit by itself, and nothing but pure clay flows 
into the other pits, p p — the principle being, that the clay from 
the natural bed should be thrown into the trough, well mixed 
with water, and broken by the harrows to separate it from the 
stones, and, when it becomes a thick puddle, be let off through 
grating by pulling up the trap-door. By this method no stones 
are allowed to escape into the pits prepared to receive the washed 
clay below.* 
* The tile-machines, both of Mr. Scrag2:s and Mr. Clayton, screen out 
the stones IVom the clay, so that neither pugsring nor washing is required, 
when either of those machines is used. — Ph. Pusky. 
