Figs. 580 to 583.
A new invention of Messrs. Grainger is their “Opalite,” a highly vitrified and very fine body, in which they have produced, with remarkably good effect, embossed tiles for external decorations in shop fronts, &c. A design of a celadon ground with the blackberry, conventionally treated, in relief, in white, with the stems relieved with burnished gold, burned into the body, is remarkably beautiful and effective.
Mr. St. John’s Encaustic Tile Works.—After the removal of Messrs. Flight and Barr’s works to the present site of the Royal porcelain manufactory, on the amalgamation spoken of on a preceding page, Mr. Barr for a time continued making encaustic paving tiles on the old premises. In this he was joined by Mr. Fleming St. John, who was one of the managing directors of the Royal porcelain works, and some excellent patterns, and of good colour and material, were produced. The tile works were, however, in 1860, sold to Messrs. Maw, who continued to carry on the manufacture until 1852, when they removed to Broseley, where the manufacture is still continued (see “Broseley”). In 1853 the premises were purchased from Mr. Fleming St. John by Mr. Allcroft, one of the partners in the firm of Dent, Allcroft, and Co., and their business of glove-making was removed within the same year.
“Worcester Tileries,” Rainbow Hill.—These works were established in 1870 by Mr. H. C. Webb, their present proprietor. The tiles produced are in three series—1st, geometrical tiles in five colours, viz. black, red, buff, grey, and chocolate; 2nd, geometrical tiles in these colours with the addition of cream, fawn, blue, white, and green; 3rd, the whole of these, with encaustic or inlaid tiles added. The geometrical tiles are made of various sizes and of every necessary shape, and thus pavements of admirable and effective design and of endless variety are produced, which are equally suitable for small villas, cottages, schools, &c. The colours are clear and good, and the quality hard and durable. The mark used by Mr. Webb is the name HENRY C. WEBB, WORCESTER, in raised letters, in a small circle impressed in the clay.
St. George’s Pottery Works.—These works were established by their present proprietor, Mr. D. W. Barker, formerly of Frome in Somersetshire, in 1869, for the manufacture of rustic ware, terra-cotta, and patent bricks—the latter being the main production of the establishment. The works are situated on Gregory’s Bank, close to the canal, on the north side of Worcester, where they occupy a large area of ground. The kilns were erected from the designs of the patentees, Hoffman and Licht, of Berlin and Dantzic, and the machinery by the patentees, Bradley and Craven, of Wakefield. As these are said to be among the best constructed of modern brick and terra-cotta works, I quote the following particulars:—
“The kiln consists of a long railway-tunnel-shaped passage, forming a long annular channel or ring. This ring is divided into twelve compartments, which may be made to communicate or to be separated from each other by the raising or lowering of a partition or damper. To each compartment there is an entrance-doorway, which can be closed with temporary brickwork. Flues lead from the bed of each compartment to the central smoke-chamber, which communicates by a main flue with the chimney. The state and progress of the fire can be at any time easily seen through the apertures on the top, down which the fuel is passed; and as the draught is under perfect control, the heat can be at once raised or lowered as may be required. The low temperature at which the gases leave the kiln is indicated by the fact that a high chimney for getting up the draught is required. There is thus a perpetual current, so to say, of bricks, which is brought slowly to revolve against, and in the contrary direction to, a perpetually revolving draught. In the green stage of the bricks they thus come in contact with air at a comparatively low temperature, and then gradually advance towards higher temperatures until they are at last burnt. Each stack of bricks to be burnt is, therefore, most ingeniously made to combine successively—(1) the functions of a grate with bars; (2) of a Leimen’s regenerator, for heating the air to be burnt; (3) of a drying-room for themselves when green; and (4) of a cooling-room for themselves when burnt. It is impossible not to enjoy the examination of such an exemplification of the dominion of mind over matter. Each day one chamber is emptied of its burnt and cooled-down bricks, and another chamber is filled with green goods. Any repairs can also be at once done to any one of the chambers as it gets emptied in its turn. In every process of treating clay or marl, with a view to drying it in the open air or to burning it, it is absolutely necessary to carry out these operations gradually at the risk of cracking and splitting the goods. This kiln, from its very gradual action and absence of sudden changes of temperature, produces no “wasters” from these causes, and the bricks can also be burnt in a much more moist state than in ordinary kilns, as the heat is very gradually brought to bear upon them. The extraordinary and widespread success of the patent annular kilns, the beauty of the scientific principles they so ingeniously embody, and the many fresh applications of which they are capable, are well deserving a careful study. In all there are not less than five hundred of these kilns at work in different parts of the world—Europe, the United States, India, and Australia. In England and her colonies alone there are upwards of ninety in use, and the power of production, within merely England and Ireland, can be reckoned at nearly one million of bricks daily. Our Admiralty use five, the Indian Government already six. In the Patent Kiln there is an important source of saving in the fact that the moisture is driven into the chimney, and is never carried over the fuel, uselessly conveying away, as it would do, enormous amounts of latent heat. The chimney, which rises from the centre of the kiln, is of a circular form, about 160 feet in height, 21 feet 6 inches in diameter at the base, and 7 feet 6 inches at the top.”