Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/324

310 includes six bisque and twelve muffle kilns, which are taxed to their utmost capacity. The clays used for white bodies come from South Carolina and Kentucky, and those for dark bodies are obtained from Indiana, the burning being done by means of natural gas. Miss Ruth Winterbotham, who is at present the principal modeler of this factory, has produced many beautiful designs, of which some three and six section panels are probably the most artistic. A series of three mantel panels, representing Dawn, Midday, and Twilight, are particularly deserving of mention, the latter one being shown in the annexed engraving. The method employed in making embossed or relief tiles is that used by all tile works in this country, which was patented by Richard Prosser, in England, in 1840, for making buttons, and shortly after applied by J. M. Blashfield to the manufacture of tiles, called the dust process, which consists in slightly moistening the dry powdered white clay and subjecting it to great pressure in dies containing the designs to be impressed upon them. They are then burned and afterward glazed or enameled in delicate colors. Mr. Robert Minton Taylor, of England, was connected with these works from 1881 to 1883.

The Beaver Falls Art Tile Company, limited, of Beaver Falls, Pa., was organized in 1886 by Mr. Frank W. Walker, the present secretary and treasurer. These works make a specialty of rectangular and circular stove tiles and manufacture largely fine art relief tiles for wainscoting, hearths, and mantel facings. The present designer is Prof. Isaac Broome, a gentleman of rare artistic ability, a thorough potter, and a sculptor of eminence, who became connected with the works in 1890. In 1878 he was appointed a special commissioner on ceramics at the Paris Exposition and, in conjunction with General McClellan, made a thorough study of the ceramic art as it exists abroad. The varied and extensive knowledge which he has acquired through a life of study has especially fitted him for the work upon which he is now engaged.