Alberhill Coal and Clay Company Develops New Clay Deposit in California

Written for The Clay-Worker.

PACIFIC COAST NEWS.

ORANGE COUNTY, California, in the vicinity of Los Angeles, is in line to become one of the great china producing districts of this country, and for more than a year James H. Hill, president of the Alberhill Coal & Clay Company of Los Angeles has been having research work done upon a very fine china clay deposit located about thirty miles from the Alberhill plant. Exacting tests have been made on the new clay, with the result that translucent china, electric light shades and fixtures of the highest quality have been made, and experienced clay and pottery workers are of the opinion that southern California may become an important center for the manufacture of fine chinaware. Formerly almost all china clay was shipped to this country from well-known companies in England, because it was thought that American clay was not of the right quality for translucent china. Consequently England, France, Holland and other countries of central Europe led in production of the finer wares.

The manufacture of electric light insulators is another clay product which the Alberhill company is featuring and the development of which bids fair to be of great importance on the Pacific coast. Roy Williams, a former expert insulator man of the Westinghouse Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., has been secured as manager of the department.

Eastern manufacturers will be interested to know that the Alberhill company expects to make a general distributing center from the new deposit and that a special freight rate of $7.50 per ton has been secured from steamship companies via the Panama Canal.

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