Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/181

Rh Until quite recently each establishment made its own saggers or fire-clay boxes in which the ware is burned, but now they are made in large numbers by machinery and supplied to the trade by the Trenton Terra-Cotta Company at a very low price. In the manufacture of earthenware formerly, "cockspurs" were used to separate the pieces when placed in the kiln. These were small four-pointed objects of clay formed somewhat like the old-fashioned caltrop, three of the arms resting on the lower vessel while the upper supported another above. Three spurs being used, it is evident that the upper surface of the lower piece would show nine marks after coming out of the kiln, where the points tore away the glaze, as in old Delft plates. The bottom of the upper vessel would show three. "Cockspurs" and "cones" were superseded by "pins" and by "triangles" and "stilts," having three horizontal arms, equidistant, with double points projecting upward and downward. These were for some time made by hand at the factories where they were to be used, but recently they have been made in assorted sizes by machinery, and sold to potters more cheaply than they could be made by hand.

Labor-saving machines have greatly simplified the work of the potter. Steam power has to a great extent taken the place of hand and foot power in running wheels, lathes, "jiggers," and "jollies." Steam grinding-mills, "blungers," sifters, and clay-presses now grind, sift, mix, dry, and prepare the clay for the workman. There are many other problems to be solved, however, in order to still further cheapen the production of utilitarian articles. The committee appointed by the United States Potters' Association to investigate the subject of potters' machinery, in their report presented at the convention held in 1890, used the following language: "We think we can see in the distance a cloud no bigger than a man's hand, which we trust will speedily increase to such proportions that the industry will feel the outpouring of benefits such as have not entered into the imagination of the potter's mind. We require only to get the