Cameron Harman on mon 6 oct 97
I am a "newbie" to clayart, but not to firing. I'm an old techie nerd.
My first kiln built for a commercial enterprise was in 1960 for the old
Glladding, McBean Co. in Los Angeles. So, I see a lot of interesting
thins in this group.
These comments were inspired by the offering coming from The Shelfords.
I can recall big old skove kilns firing sewer pipe in Ohio a number of
years ago. These kilns were built with three wallls, no roof and a door
built up each firing. They were enourmous things measuring about thirty
feet wide by sixty feet long and fifteen feet high.
They were fired with wood, and actually worked. The old firemen used to
look into the firebox and judge the color inside the kiln for
temperature. They didn't believe in pyrometers either!
It was interesting to watch those firement work. they went round and
round the kiln filling in the fireboxes with wood. Then they would wait
a hwile and do it again. Suddenly, the fireman would stop stoking the
kiln and grab a shovel full of salt and start tossing that into the
fireboxes.
That was how they made salt glazed sewer pipe. Later when we checked the
fiiring temperatures with a pyrometer, we found that the fireman's eye
was bang on! He judged the temperature within five degrees every time ..
wow! (he had no idea what the temperature actually was, he only knew
that the color was right.
So for Mrs. Shelford... keep it up, you are in good company!
regards,
Cameron
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Cameron G. Harman, Jr. President Ceramic Services,
Inc.
215-245-4040 fax 215-638-1812 e mail
kilns@kilnman.com
1060 Park Ave. Bensalem, PA 19020
THE place to go for answers to all YOUR kiln and dryer questions
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The Shelfords on wed 8 oct 97
Hi Cameron and all -
Fascinating stuff about the "fireman's eye". But just so that further
comments on this thread are directed to the real source, I should mention
that I was just forwarding the post for Joan Warren, a potter who lives on
Saltspring (the next island but one to Thetis, here in the Gulf of
Georgia). What interested me as well, in Joan's post, was the fact that
she had adapted the kiln to allow for bad knees. As my joints ain't what
they once were, back in my ballet days, I like the idea of adapting the
kiln construction to suit.
- Veronica
managing to get a few things done on Thetis, where it hasn't rained for
more than a couple of hours a day, for two (count 'em, TWO) whole days.
Can we keep this up???
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I can recall big old skove kilns firing sewer pipe in Ohio a number of
>years ago.
____________________________________________________________________________
Veronica Shelford
e-mail: shelford@island.net
s-mail: P.O. Box 6-15
Thetis Island, BC V0R 2Y0
Tel: (250) 246-1509
____________________________________________________________________________
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