The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 42: November, 1892, to April, 1893 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Excerpt from The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 42: November, 1892, to April, 1893

But a locality which furnished silica, alkali, and lime would still be badly OE as regards the needs of glasemaking if it were out of reach of adequate supplies of substances refractory enough when fashioned into crucibles topermit the fusion of the mixture. For this purpose fire clay is the material par excellence, since it withstands both the chemical action of the molten glass and the disintegrating cfiect of the intense heat of the furnace. It is an essential to glass-making. Bulk for bulk, however, much less fire clay is needed than crude material for the batch, so that it is less needful that the fire clay shall be a local product. It can be brought to the batch more economically than the batch can.be taken to it. It does not happen, therefore, in the history of the glass industry, that the mere presence of suitable clay ever deter mines the location of works. At the present time much of the clay used in both England and America comes from Germany. It is significant, in looking over the columns of our trade journals, that the advertisements are for the most part of the imported rather than the native article. There are, however, large deposits of excellent clay in northeastern New J ersey, in western Penn sylvania, in Missouri, in Ohio, and in other parts of the country, which must eventually be utilized. The American clay is, if any thing, purer than the foreign, but it is less dense, and will probably require somewhat difierent treatment from the German. The attempt to substitute it for the imported in the earlier days, before the requirements of the pot clay were so well known and our own deposits had been so well exploited, led to financial disaster, and even to the suspension of a large works at Boston, where the ex periment proved absolutely fatal. Our knowledge of refractory materials is less scientific than of any of the other materials used in glasamaking. In consequence we are the more dependent upon rnle-of-thumb methods in working them, and pay the more dearly for the experience when we venture any innovation.

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