PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE.

To-day most of the clay used in potting is carefully
washed before being shipped to the manufacturer, and
the flint and feldspar are finely ground at the quarry.
These materials, in due proportions, are placed in tanks
called " plungers," with the necessary amount of water,
and worked, tons at a charge, by machinery, in a short
space of time. The mass is then sifted and afterwards
forced through canvas bags held in what is termed a
" press," the surplus moisture thus being expelled. An
improved hydrostatic press, made by Mr. A. J. Boyce, of
East Liverpool, Ohio, and now used in many potteries
with great success, is shown in the accompanying illustra-
tion.
TOOLS AND MACHINES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
POTTERY.
The potter's wheel used well into the present century
was a clumsy and primitive affair.  It consisted of
a perpendicular beam, generally about two feet in
height, surmounted by a circular disk a foot or so in
diameter. At the lower extremity of the beam or axis
was a horizontal wooden wheel, four feet across, possess-
ing four inclined iron spokes which extended from the
beam to the rim of the wheel, which the workman pushed
around with his feet. He sat on a framework behind the
wheel, while in front were piled the lumps of clay to
be manipulated. This contrivance was termed a " kick-
wheel."
A great advance was made in potters' machinery a
few years later, or in the first quarter of the present

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