At the heart of such ceramics are clays—fine-grained sheet silicates similar to mica. Their structures can incorporate water, and when fired, such clays effectively collapse into denser structures, or even metamorphose (change form) into other, denser minerals. Ball clay, so named because historically 35-pound cubes of clay became rounded during shipping, is a common constituent. It is usually mixed with varying amounts of kaolin (another clay mineral), quartz, and feldspar to make ceramics.
In the United States, Pennsylvania was a historical major producer of ball clays. In Europe, Devonshire, England was an important source. Today, 63% of U.S. ball clay production comes from Tennessee.
Ceramic earthenware and stoneware such as dishes and bowls is a tiny volume of all clay consumed. Most ball clay in the U.S. serves as fillers and plasticizers in floor and wall tiles, and in the ceramics that become toilets and sinks.
The clay industry in the United States is a $1.4-billion business employing about 5400 workers in 41 states.
Photo of opium pipe from Butte Chinatown archaeological dig courtesy of Mitzi Rossillon.
2 comments:
Cool. I remember all the fine chemical resistant and metallurgical "bricks" in Pennsylvania. Even the common red brick (made from shale there) was far superior to most Butte brick--so my Q: why is most Butte brick so crappy?
Larry Smith could answer better, but basically brick made in Butte (1880s to early 1900s, but with one factory until 1955) does not have enough clay because our soils are mostly decomposed granite. Weather granite enough and the feldspars alter to clays - that needs more water and/or more time. So by about 1900-1905, much of Butte's brick was coming from Anaconda, with its wetter, more deeply weathered rocks (and not just granite). I think Helena began to take over as the state's leading brick manufacturer by the 1910s. Butte after 1900 actually imported a lot of the brick, so any crappiness in brick here is just the nature of common brick everywhere - fired at a low temperature and therefore susceptible to all the ills that brick is prey to. Good strong common brick from Pennsylvania must have had a composition that lent the shale/clay to pretty hard firing even at lower temperatures, or possibly their brick kilns burned hotter thanks to anthracite coal. I really don't know the ultimate explanation. But generally speaking the majority of brick in Butte buildings after about 1900-1905 isn't really from Butte, and goodly amounts are not even from Montana. I've seen lots of loose brick stamped Hebron ND - from the "Brick Capital of North Dakota."
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