[Newspaper]
Publication: Southern Field and Fireside
Augusta, GA, United States
vol. 1, no. 4, p. 5, col. 2-3
SOUTHERN MANUFACTURE OF PORCELAIN.
With Mr. WHEELER, the obliging Secretary of the Southern Porcelain Manufacturing Company, we recently visited its works in South Carolina, near this city. Mr. FARRAR at the establishment was kind enough to explain to the writer the different processes, from the mixing of the kaolin, or porcelain clay, and felspar, in a crude state, to the final glazing and finishing of beautiful translucent ware. We will not attempt to descible [sic] describe these interesting operations; but content ourself with the remark that the machinery appears well adapted to the purposes for which it was constructed, and capable of doing a large and successful business. The steam engine is of thirty horse power; and one pair of the Burr stones for grinding kaolin, quartz and felspar [sic] feldspar, is eight feet in diameter. — The felspar [sic] feldspar is brought from Connecticut. If the granite regions of Georgia and South Carolina were properly examined, it is highly probable the mineral required in the manufacture of porcelain would be found much nearer teh works. Some twelve years since we made an analysis of this kaolin, and found it remarkably free of iron and lime, and very similar to that described by Knapp as used for making porcelain near Berlin, Vienna and Paris. Both kaolin and felspar [sic] feldspar differ considerably in different deposits, and even the same masses. In a pure state, kaolin is a silicate of alumina; but this white clay contains more or less quartz sand, and felspar [sic] feldspar in a granular state. The careful analysis of the most perfect imported Chinaware shows the European and American porcelains are formed of the same elementary substances, and in very nearly the same proportions, The Chinese, however, have been practising [sic] practicing this art for thousands of years, and using materials of a long, established character. Our materials are comparatively unknown; while; our artists are pursuing what is to them a new trade. Hence a lack of high artistic skill is unavoidable. These difficulties should not discourage the Company, nor prevent the public giving it a cordial support. Every month its workmen will improve — taught by experience and close observation. Last month they turned out goods to the amount of four thousand dollars; and $50,000 may be about their average year. The clay from which this strong and durable ware is produced, being exceedingly abundant and cheap, and wood hardly less so at the establishment, we visited it mainly to learn what we might of the economy of manufacturing both large and small pipes and tubes for conveying water from one place to another, for domestic and other purposes. Most persons know that metalic [sic] metallic pipes like lead, iron, zinc and Copper, are objectionable for various reasons; and that wood as a conduit soon decays. Pipes made of common red clay, or tile clay, lack strength to resist pressure. What is the strength of well vitrified porcelain to sustain the weight of a head of water?
The books within our reach throw but little light on the subject. In treating of clay pipes and tubes, vol 2nd. page 211, KNAPP describes and figures a hydraulic press of such power "that its application renders pipes sufficiently strong to resist a pressure of from thirty five to forty atmospheres, (above one thousand pounds on the square inch) which, with pipes manufactured in the ordinary manner, would be perfectly impossible." Their dimensions, he says, "are from twelve lines in diameter, with five lines thickness of substance, to one hundred lines diameter and ten lines thickness. Their length may be one metre equal to four feet Hessian. The running metre of a conducting pipe, including the connecting pieces, weighed, of the first size, three pounds; of the last one hundred pounds."
It seems incredible that any clay pipe, however vitrified, nearly a foot in diameter, (one hundred Hessian lines in the aperture) and only ten lines in thickness, (something like three quarters of an English inch) should be capable of sustaining a pressure of thirty five or forty atmospheres. It is true that a glass tube whose sides are three quarters of an inch in thickness, will bear an immense weight of water before explosion; but we should not expect it, or any vitrified mineral, to resist a pressure of one thousand pounds to the square inch, or thirty five atmospheres. — Yet no authority in modern science stands higher than the author cited; and he professes to state the result of experiments — not theory. The weight of ten atmospheres will raise a column of water in an exhausted tube over three hundred feet in perpendicular height; showing that porcelain pipes up to a foot in diameter, can be made of any required strength.
It appears probable that the presence of the fine particles of solid Kaolin, or of pure clay, in the finest kind of glass, which give to China its milk-like color, increase the strength of this vitrious [sic] vitreous cement; as fragments of angular granite are known to strengthen a wall composed in part of any lime and sand cement. In good porcelain, hard felspar [sic] feldspar is cemented by liquified quartz. The solid particles in vitrified quartz, as it exists in China, prevents the light passing through the glass in direct rays so as to see objects as through a glass window; yet these opaque bodies do not wholly obstruct the light, as any one may see who will look into a China teacup held up towards the sun, or any good light.
No one, we trust. will take exceptions if we suggest the propriety of bringing the excellent water that issues in copious springs from the base of the Sand Hills, in a porcelain pipe, large enough to pass the whole of it into Augusta. so that our tea and coffee, and the water we drink may be as pure as nature’s most perfect filter can make it. We understood Mr. WHEELER and Mr. TURNER to say that they were ready to test the strength of their pipe in advance of any contract to the satisfaction of the City Council, and then furnish porcelain pipe as cheap as iron pipe can be had, and guarantee its soundness and strength. Believing that Kaolin may become the basis of a large and profitable industry, and local trade, it strikes us that the citizens of Augusta may wisely discard their wooden and rotten pump-logs for bringing water into the city, and indulge themselves in the luxury of taking it fresh to their lips in pure China, direct from the Fountain. If we have material almost at our doors that will form a semi-glass tube which will stand a head of water fifty feet high without bursting; while we have both the men and the machinery ready to manufacture such tubing cheaper then iron, if any pipe is to be purchased, why not let our own citizens have the contract? It will be the auspicious beginning of an immense trade; for the Chalk hills in the vicinity of Augusta and Hamburg, are not small; and already they are being exported to the North — showing intrinsic value.
The Kaolin deposit at Aue, near Schneeberg, which very nearly resembles our own, has already been exhausted in the manufacture of porcelain. It is only one hundred and fifty years since Botticher, a German Chemist, was the first in Europe to discover a process by which real spell:porcelein;porcelain] may be manufactured. He was confined in prison for several years; two monarchs, (Frederick I. of Russia, and Augustus, II. of Poland), long tried to express from him the secret of transmuting base metals into gold. The historian says: "After very numerous and laborious exertions, carried on during his imprisonment at Sonnestein, Botticher at length in the year 1709. saw his endeavors crowned with success by the production of true white porcelain." The art spread slowly from Saxony, and did not reach Berlin, till 1751; and Sevres, near Paris in 1765.
