[Newspaper]
Publication: The Semi-Weekly Eagle
Brattleboro, Vermont, United States
vol. 4, no. 50, p. 1, col. 6
Flint Enamel Ware.
Some ten or fifteen years ago Mr Fenton, a manufacturer of Fire-Brick, &c., at Bennington Vt., commenced a course of experiments on the liquefaction by heat intermingling in various proportions of the Flint, Quartz, &c., used in his business or existing in the mountains around him, with an eye to the production of wares adapted to household uses. In these experiments he persevered against every discouragement the absorption of his means, the remonstrances of his friends and the loss of an eye—until at last he was enabled to produce a ware combining strength, purity and beauty in a degree utterly unprecedented. This ware is composed entirely of Flint, Feldspar and Quartz ground together, bolted like flour, then formed, into a clay or paste, and moulded into any shape which taste or use may suggest, then covered with a delicate enamel and baked to a consistency exceeding tint of marble. The enamel, be it understood, is formed entirely of Flint, without, a particle of the metalic [sic] metallic bases which render much of the Ware now in ordinary use always dangerous and often virulently poisonous. Probably no year passes in which hundreds do not die in this country of poison ignorantly imbibed with food which has been prepared in earthen or ether vessels enameled by the aid of metals injurious to life. Copper vessels without enamel are often rendered poisonous by the contact of acids or by other incitements to corrosion. Cheese is often rendered poisonous by the dissolution of the enamel on the milk pans, or by the copper or other metals with which they are brought in contact, and, though not sufficiently charged with the virtues to cause immediate illness, they incite or aggravate diseases which may prove teal without inducing a suspicion of the cause.
The Flint Enamel Ware, though especially prized by us for its capacity to supersede the enamel wares now used as Milk-pans, Stew-pans, Coffee-urns, &c., is intended to subserve a far wider-circle of uses. Among the articles into which it has already been fashioned are Water-jars, Stove-urns, Mantel and other Parlor Ornaments, Lamps and Candle-sticks, Table slabs, Door-plates, Door-knobs, Block-letters, Daguerreotype frames, Inkstands, Pitchers, Wash-bowls, Bathing-tubs, Spittoons. &c. &c. &c.
The usual color of this Ware is a rich, dark brown, shaded and flocked or mottled with white and blue, though it is made of a pure white when desired. It is harder than marble, and a delicate pitcher may be thrown on the floor with violence without starting the handle. The point of a nail driven smartly against-its side with a hammer makes no scratch or dent of any kind. The enamel stands heat perfectly, and all this Ware may be, as most of, it is, made absolutely fire-proof, so as to be buried in a pit of burning anthracite and come out of the ashes as good as new. Withal it is nearly if not quite as cheap as the fragile clumsy and homely “Stone Ware" now in use. We cannot doubt that it will rapidly find its way into very general use throughout the country. A Company has been formed to manufacture it, with ample capital. The Ware is patented, and agencies for its exclusive sale, by Counties and Towns, are being formed throughout the Union.
