Peter Atwood on sun 20 jun 99
Hi folks,
I've had some interesting conversations witht the NY State Geologists office
concerning our quest for remaining Albany slip. The guy I talked to, Bill
Kelly, had quite a bit to say on the subject. He was extremely helpful and
provided me with a list of publications from the state offices that I could
puruse. He named a particular book to check out and even put in phone calls
to the last company to mine A;bany slip. Thanks Bill!
According to Bill Kelly, the Albany slip clay pit was owned by a woman who
died some 15 or 20 years ago. The Powell and Minnock Company was renting the
land and mining the clay at the time. The woman's heirs did not want to
bother with the rental arrangements and decided to sell off the land to
developers. Apparently, the resources of the pit were fairly well exhausted
so the sale was made and houses were built on the site. Following is the
email that Bill sent me:
"Good day Peter
The guy to call at the Division of Mineral Resources at the Department
of
Environmental Conservation is Steve Potter, 518 457-9341. The web page url
for
this office is http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dmn
Go to the "site index", then "data" and "mining" for a downloadable
database of all the mineral producers in the state. You might (should?) be
able
to search this for clay producers.
The reference for the book I mentioned is "The Clays and Shales of New
York
State", 1951, NYS Department of Commmerce. This was focused solely on the
brick
and ceramic industry. There's a lot of data on localities and fired
properties
of NY clays. It is surely out of print but you can get this from a library
or
via interlibrary loan.
Just for the heck of it, I have a call in to the manager of the last
producer of slip clay here in Albany, Powell & Minnock Brick Works. I don't
expect much but if I learn anything, I'll let you know.
K
Peter,
I just talked with the folks at Powell & Minnock. They know of no source
for
Albany slip clays anymore. They think that the quarry they were getting
their
supplies from was exhausted when it closed. In any event, they have not
been
able to find another source and had to discontinue the line of products that
they used to make using the Albany slip. They agree that the stuff from
Sheffield Pottery isn't the same. They tried it and it was not satisfactory.
If
you actually find some of this, I'd appreciate knowing about it."
Well, my question is, how much slip did they need to be collecting to make
the operation a viable one? In other words, when they say they exhausted the
supply are they talking tons? Obviously we potters only need a few 5 gallon
bucketfuls.
Bill seemed to agree that there are probably more clay deposits in the area
of similar composition but whether they are reachable may be another story.
I'm planning to visit my uncle in Albany next month some time and I will try
to find the exact location of the old pit and scope out the terrain.
Any other ideas?
--Peter Atwood
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Thonas C. Curran on mon 21 jun 99
Peter, I have been told that the entire South Mall was built on albany
slip - for what it's worth. Many years ago a customer gave me a small
amount of albany slip from his back yard, and that worked fine. I never
followed up on it since I already had traded pots for 50 kilos of it,
and I have to admit that I have forgotten the source. There must be
deposits here and there...from what I've heard, they are just not
suitable for profitable commercial mining. The government types may be
helpful, but they probably won't know of backyards and empty lots with
the slip.
Do you do any shows in the Albany area? I am doing the jazz festival
at Saratoga next week, and perhaps I can put up a sign at my booth about
albany slip. If we all do that, we might come up with someone willing
to trade topsoil for slip. My customer would have done that...if I
still remembered who it was! Thanks for all your investigation so far.
Carolyn Curran
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