The third illustration shows the Mill for grinding raw materials. The clays are put into this vat and crushed between two stones. There is nothing different now from the early days. The old oak beams tell their story. It is true that steam is now used, but that is all to make this process differ from that employed a century and a half ago—first when wind-power was used, as in flour mills, and later when a horse was substituted.
This grinding is done with water, and the mixture comes out a thick liquid. The mixing-tank is the next stage. These liquid constituents, such as ball clay, china clay, flint, &c., according to the formula of the pottery, are carefully admitted into the tank in correct proportions and thoroughly "blended" together. The body is now in its "slip" state, and is pressed and dried to make it more malleable when not required for casting. In its later stage, in more solid form, it is ready to be thrown on the potter's wheel.
The Potter's Wheel.—We illustrate ([p. 40]) the ingenious potter who is known as "The Thrower." It is he who, on a little revolving table between his knees pressed with his hands, magically transforms the lump of clay into beautiful shapes. Unfortunately, modern methods are eliminating the work of "the thrower," whose art dates back to the remotest past in the East when man first made clay into objects of beauty. We find the prophet Jeremiah saying, "Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold he wrought a work on the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter, so he made again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it."
Old Omar Khayyam brings a moral to bear on the potter and his wheel:
"Surely not in vain
My substance from the common Earth was ta'en
That He who subtly wrought me into shape
Should stamp me back to common Earth again."
And Shakespeare, not to miss a good simile, makes one of his characters say, "My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel."