Bill Merrill on thu 19 aug 10
Kilns and fires....Dave Shaners wood kiln caught his site wood on fire
that was close to the kiln. The County fire department in Big Fork came
to the rescue...sprayed water on the wood and despite Dave's objections
sprayed water on his kiln, ruined the kiln, broke all the pots and kiln
shelves. Now, there was a knowledgeable group of fire fighters. It
took Dave several years to recover his claim to an insurance company.
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At Alfred in the early days the graduate studio was an old building
named Glidden after the paint company family who donated money to
Alfred. In August of '73 the best kiln I ever fired was being fired by
a grad student. This kiln, "The Big Mother" was a 100 cubic foot car
kiln. It was built by Bob Turner and Dale Rousch in about 1958. It was
a flat roof kiln and had 10 Alfred burners on it. It fired like a
dream. Great pots came from that kiln.
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During the firing the damper was pushed in perhaps a little too much,
the chimney ignited the back of the building and caught the roof on
fire. The Alfred Fire Department came and put out the roof and back
wall fire, but because they knew about kilns and did not spray the kiln.
They let the firing continue until completion of the firing. That was
the last time I saw that kiln firing. Glidden was torn down and the
grad students moved into the new ceramic facility that Fall. There is a
picture of the Big Mother on My Flicker site. It was part of the book
by Mel on 21 st century kilns. The historic pictures were left out of
the article, only the technical survive , I guess. The entire article
is posted on Flicker...the Big Mother is shown with the roof burned
off.....
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/25594880@N04/=3D20
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Bill
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