Alberhill Pottery Co. is formed in Los Angeles

Another Pottery in Alberhill Family

A subsidiary corporation of the Alberhill Coal & Clay Co., Los Angeles, Calif., has just been formed to be known as, the Alberhill Pottery Co. It will give its entire strength to building up this end of the clay business, loosely known as "art pottery," altho it includes much that is highly useful as well as merely decorative.

At the Industrial Exposition held in Los Angeles in August, the Alberhill company was a prominent exhibitor and its varied and interesting display drew a group all the time. This was one of the dominating reasons for launching the new enterprise. Fourteen different branches, or rather, fourteen different concerns that are using the Alberhill clays exhibited at that time, and many wishes were expressed for an extension of the ceramic industry of Southern California.

When it was decided to go into this branch it was necessary to provide manufacturing facilities, so the company leased a part of the Kohler & Myers (K. & M.) pottery, at Fifty-second and Santa Fe Avenue, for a term of years with the privilege of acquiring extra space if needed. And that it will be, is already patent even to a casual observer. A pulverizing machine has recently been installed and this makes it possible for the Alberhill company to carry out its plans for a plant to separate, grind, pulverize, wash and mix clays for the ceramic trades.

Bins are to be installed for the various clays that will be dumped into them direct from the freight cars and a blower system will distribute the ground and pulverized clays to other bins and mixing machines, where they will have added to them the ingredients required according to their purpose, such ingredients including feldspar, silica and so forth. A kiln will be installed at this plant for the first firing of commercial insulators and it is already clear that this kiln will be run to capacity from the start, until a larger plant for insulators becomes a necessity.

This growth of the company has made it incumbent that a larger technical and mechanical force be added, so R. Lenfesty of Chicago, has been engaged, while T. H. Young, one of the ceramic engineers who has been using the research laboratory, and who was formerly general superintendent of the Jeffries [sic] Jeffery-DeWitt Porcelain Co. of Huntington, W. Va., has charge of the insulator department. The clay compounding, washing and mixing plant is in charge of Joel Wacholder, formerly general manager of the Illinois-Pacific Glass Co. at San Francisco. Finlay M. Drummond, former manager of the Steubenville (Ohio) Potteries, is production expert. William McClintock, long with the company, is advanced to the responsible position of general production superintendent of all the Alberhill industries. All of these men have a direct interest in the business and each is vitally alive to the wonderful possibilities and determined to advance this clay company to its proper place at the head of such organizations.