Iron County register., 1888-11-08
CLAY PIPE MAKING.
The Process Simple, and One That Could
Be Learned by q Child.


Nearly all the clay used in the man
ufacture of clay pipes is obtained at
Woodbridge and Amboy, N. j. There
are immense beds and mines there,
some open and others reached only by
deep shafts, and in them clay is mined
in the same manner as coal. Three
kinds of clay are mixed to give the re-
quired properties. One kind when
mined is nearly as black as coal. This
has a very fine grain, and gives the
pipe the smooth finish. Another kind
has an altogether different appearance
in the rough state. 1t is quite white
and resembles a piece of cheese. This
kind furnishes the tenacity. Without
this second kind the other two would
not be able to hold together, but
would crumble as they dried. The
third kind is brown when damp, and
stands the burning process we'll.
These three kinds of ebay, without
any one of which the composition
would be incomplete, are the ingre-
dients of a clay pipe. The clay is
brought to this city by boats,
and stored away in the cellar. In
preparing the clay for the workshop it
is first put into a huge vat to soak.
About equal parts of the three kinds
are used. This is allowed to stand
from twelve to twenty hours, accord
ing to the length of time the clay has
been exposed to the air and hardened.
When it has been soaked enough it is
shoveled into a huge pug-min. The
pug-rnill looks like an old-fashioned
churn. A horse is hitched to the end
of bar, while the other end is set into
a pivot in the center of a huge upright
cylinder. To the pivot, which revolves
as the horse is driven around in cir
Gle. is attached twelve heavy knives
about three inches broad. These
knives are slightly turned up, and, as
they pass around through the mass,
mix the different kinds of clay and
force it down and out a four by six-inch
hole at the bottom. The clay oozing
from the bottom is cut into huge bricks
called .'babbitts," and stored away
until wanted.
Great care must be taken not to let
these babbitts dry too much, or they
will have to be soaked and ground
over again. These babbitts or bricks
of the prepared clay, which look like
great loaves of bread, are taken to the
mOlding room and there soaked again
to bring it back to the proper molding
far hn nj of hn
labor that would delight child. A
workman takes a knife and cuts the
babbitts into pieces about an inch
square and six or eight inches long.
These he works and rolls them on a
board with his hands, and ending up
with a deXterous clip, turns out roll
of soft, pliable clay with knob at one
end, like a pipe bowl. These rolls are
laid out on rack and partly dried
again. They are again soaked and
passed to the molding machines. The
molder holds a medium-sized piece of
wire in his right hand, and sticking
the point into the small end of the
roll, he works the clay on the wire,
after the manner of drawing
on q glove. The roll with the wire
still sticking out of the smaller end is
put into an iron mold of the required
shape and the two sides of the mold
together.
The mold is then put into the ma
chine with the top of the knob, which
will soon be the bowl, up. A lever is
pulled down, and the smooth, round
end of an iron rod forced into the
mass, forming the bowl. As the lever
is let go of. it flies up of its own weight
and a spring knife passes across the
large end of the mold, cutting off the
waste clay that remains on the top end
of the bowl. The mold is opened inn
the wire drawn out and the
pipe placed on a rack to dry. These
half-finished pipes are allowed to stand
just long enough to dry the oil with
which the mold is fabricated, and are
then passed to a girl who trims off the
stems where the two halves of the
mold come together. The soft, damp
pipes are then allowed to dry thor
oughly. .-Syracuse (N. T. Herald.