The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1870-04-16
UTICA.


A few days ago we went on tour Of obser
walton to Utica, in this county, and found il
full of business, as usual. Owing to its largs
manufacturing establishments, it is never SC
dull as its neighbors, trade being uniform in
its character, and money enough to do its bu
siness always in circulation.
The Cement works and the Drain Tile work.
always pay their employees regularly IN cash
and they in turn pay the grocer, butcher, ba
ker, tailor, shoemaker, &c.
They in turn pay their creditors, and thus
the machinery continues to revolve smoothly
and regularly. ..s
The above manufacturing establishments
pay out from five to six thousand dollars per
month. This all goes to laboring men, who
spend it in Utica, in building small, comfort.
able houses for themselves, and in clothing
and schooling their children
As a class, the men working in the quarries,
coal mines, sand banks, pottery works and &C.
ment mills at Utica, are of sober, industrious
and frugal habits, saving what they earn, and
continually making improvements about their
little homes, so that nearly every dollar paid
out to them becomes permanent investment
in Utica.
We fancy five or six thousand dollars paid
out monthly to the laboring people of Ottawa,
would be wonderful help in easing money
matters, benetiting every man, from the deal
er in pop corn to the largest mandatory.
The Pottery, or tile and sewer pipe works
of White, Clark & Co., are located south of the
Canal, on its bank, and within easy access of
the Railroad.
The main building or drying house is 337 It.
long, As feet wide, and twenty-five feet high.
The sides and ends are composed entirely
of shutters, so as to admit all the warmth and
air possible, and to exclude rain. Adjoining
this on the west, the ground has been leveled
and work has be gun in erecting building
similar to the above. This drying house will
be 100 feet long by As wide.
On the north of the first building are seven
kilns for burning the pipe, fire brick, &C. The
kilns have capacity each of 20, 900 fire brick
"a sort of brick twice the size of builders
brick. The making Of fire brick is an impor-
tant branch of the business of the firm. They
discovered here a sort of clay which is pecu-
larly adapted to this purpose, and they are
making immense numbers Of the brick, and
competent judges pronounce them equal to
the best, If not the best made in the country.
Two Of these large kilns arc devoted exclusive
ly to burning fire brick.
The clay for this brick is found in inexhaus-
tible beds near Utica and at Starved Rock,
and the fine sand with which it is mixed com.
poses the high bluffs for several miles above
and below the town. The brick, after being
moulded, much the same as common red brick
are put into press having aprodigious COM
pressing power, and reduced to IL compact and
perfect form, making the shape exact and gi-
wing the edges we'll defined, sharp form.
Then they are burned, subjected to most in.
tense heat, such as would melt common brick
into cinder, and, Oh being removed and cool.
ed, are ready for shipment.
Near these kilns are the drain tile works, a
large building, three stories high, about So #.
square. The clay used in this business is much
the same as is used in ordinary potters' ware,
but of fine texture, and free from substances
as will not readily be ground with the clay,
and consequently there are no Jumps or scars
on the surface Of the pipes when burnt, as is
often the case with coarse crooks and jars.
This material, when properly mixed with
sand and fine blue clay, is ground very fine in
an immense mill, driven by steam engine,
and then it Is pressed compactly in another
machine. Here it IS thrown in chunks into a
mould, an upright cylinder. Two men here
turn crank, which drives the core of the
mould downward, working on the screw prin.
cple and forcing the clay out below, through
a die, giving it the required size and length
The tiles are then carried to adjoining rooms
and placed in upright positions, where they
are subjected to intense heat by means of steam
furnaces in the basement, supplying heat to
the entire building. When sufficiently dried
they are placed in the kilns and burnt. When
the heat is most intense in the kins, salt i.
thrown in, and it quickly melting, the steam,
arising, adheres to the tiles, pipes, or brick
as the case may be, giving them the proper
glazing and finish, and better enabling then
to resist heat frost and moisture.
They are largely engaged in the manufactur,