The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-27
INDIANA'S CLAY PIPES
MADE AT A QUAINT SHOP DOWN
AMONG THE NEW ALBANY HILLS.
One of the Two Pipe Factories In
the United States-FOreign Conn
petition Has Hurt the Trade.

| -A
By the recent tariff discussion concerning
clay pipes, based on the sound logic that
revised tariff regulating the importation of
European pipes would widen the market
for the American article and benefit Ameri-
| can producers, two interesting bits of clay
pipe history have been brought TO the sur
| face. One of these is, as stated in New
York newspapers and syndicate articles,
that the only clay-pipe factory in this coun-
| try is one-story affair with single kiln,
| located up side alley in a New York sub
urb-the other equally interesting fact is
| that another "only clay-pipe factory in the
| country" is situated on one of the many
/ beautiful little hills nesting below the big
| hills which form a semi-circle about New
Albany, in the southern section of Indiana.
1t is rapidly passing into an axiom in this
| part of Indiana that what cannot be
found i'll Floyd county cannot be found any
where" and assuredly this perhaps rather
vainglorious assertion is sustained, in this
case at least, by the facts. The New York
| clay-pipe maker, if he be a sane man, would
no doubt envy the Indiana clay-pipe maker
his items of vantage as to residence;
man who has a hill all to himself is GER
tainly points ahead of the man whose work
| a-day shop lies up New York side alley.
| Forty years ago Barney Spring" as the
| New Albany clay-pipe manufacturer is IA
miliarly known, came to Rochester, N. Y,
| from England. He was born in Sudbury
| about sixty years ago. was in early years
baker but drifted to "a place called Lon
! dom" as he quantity expressed it, and
! there learned the trade of pipe making.
| From Rochester he moved to Cincinnati,
| where he made and sold pipes until he had
| accumulated a tidy bit of money, with
| which he purchased the little knoll of
| Hoosier land on which he has now piled
| his trade for more than a quarter of a
century. To those who relish dealing with
the unique and unexpected the approach to
| Barney Springs home and kiln is most in
teresting. After a two-mile walk on
dusty turnpike, with malodorous slaughter
houses on one side and prosperous homes
with blooming gardens on the other, just
| beyond a tollgate, a brown-red ribbon of
road winds over little hill and disappears.
Following it for a quarter of a mile we
find it runs along into the woods and stops
at big gate and a rail fence.
THE PIPEMAKER'S CABIN.
Behind the fence and surrounded by for
est, lies the hill, up which diagonal road,
ending in stepping stones set in the hillside,
! leads to the two-story cabin of the pipe
maker. Before the door is an old-fashioned
garden, abloom with bleeding hearts" and
| fragrant with those old-time plants, In
| touching sentimental conjunction, known
as Sweet Mary and "Old Man" Chick
ems roam the dooryard and peach and plum
orchards roll away over the hill down to
the creek On the plain board door of the
| two-story cabin is stencil print of the
owners humble coat-of-arms, "B. Spring,
| .{,,sne, al for
armorial bearings. The large lower room
on which the door opens is the pipemakers
workshop and living ROOM on one
side is stove, chairs, table and
| clock, and on the other the ppemaker's
long workbench under the window, while
| the space on third wall is filed to the
! ceiling with tiers of shelves or drying
! racks such as are seen in all potteries.
| Against the front wall, over the work.
| bench, are neat rows of the metal tools of
| the trade fastened up with leather cleats
! and attached to the bench are two wooden
pipe presses, or gin heads. Boxes OF clay
! pipes, for retail sale or shipping by whole
| sale, are stacked in the corner behind the
| door,
OF all the ancient trades which have out
| lived the progress of invention and ma
| chine methods, clay pipe making is per-
| hans the most interesting as well as the
! simplest. The story of a clay pipe-from
| formless Jumps to the finish-is well told
| by Barney the pipemaker, in peculiar
| English speech and accent which the
| much-vaunted "Hoosier dialect has not in
| the least impaired. The clay used here
| comes partly from Germany, partly also
| from Bedford, Ind. Good clay is found in
| this county, and some worthy red pipes
| which are shown were made of clay taken
from the pipemakers' own bit of hilly land.
For pipemaking the first process is soak
ing the clay twenty-four hours to make it
soft and pIiable; it is then beaten with an
iron bar to rid it of hard Jumps. This great
mass of waxy, moist clay is then hoisted to
the workbench, where it is nodded into
what are called rolls" Each roll is three
| times the size of q pipe stem, and ends in
| a. rough round ball. They are made by
| rolling clay between the hands and then
! between small fiat pieces of board to Sc
cure uniform thickness. AS the rolls are
shaped they are put into punches of six
| and set aside to dry trifie, when they are
! ready to be pierced and nodded. With
roll in one hand and small iron rod in
the other, the rod having a small button on
| it's end, the workman next drills the
hole in the pipe that is to be.
| This process requires as much expert
ence and delicacy of touch as the
| sculptor uses when he pinches a pretty bit
| of coqletry into the delicate nostrils of
some exquisite girl in clay The rod must
go directly through the center of the roll,
! and the metal button must stop at just
such a point in the ball at the end Of the
| roll Next, the clay roll goes into the
metal mold which is to determine its shape
and expression as a pipe.
Barney Spring has pipe molds in great
variety many of them being of unique
and even historic design. They were made
by hand, of course, of iron. bell metal or
| brass, roughly cast and then worked by
| die-sinking into the desired patterns. These
rnods are in two pieces, and into one of
these the roll of clay is laid, the rough ball
| fitting into the bovrl-end; over this the
| other half of the mold is placed, and it is
then ready to be put into the press box
of the gin head on the bench. When the
| handle of the gin head comes down, at
| enc and the same moment the clay is
pressed TO fill the mold and the overp1us
| of clay is cut off and falls into box be-
meath the workbench. With another
| touch the pipemaker pushes the rod clear
! into the pipe-before opening the mold