History of the Clay-Working Industry in the United States (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from History of the Clay-Working Industry in the United StatesThen too, the methods of mining and treatment have been simple as compared with those of the metals, so that they have attracted but little attention in the technical literature in this country.Added to this is the fact that journals devoted to the Clay indus try are of comparatively recent establishment and the only Ceramic Society of the United States in which matters of technical interest are discussed, is but 11 years old. The State Geological Surveys, though in many cases organized at an early date, gave but pass ing mention to their plastic resources, and the first report, the classic work of Dr. Cook of New Jersey, did not appear until 1878.This was followed after an interval by the appearance of Clay reports in many other States, New York, Ohio, and Missouri being among the earliest, followed later by a number of others. But nearly every one of these reports was devoted primarily and mainly to a consideration of the properties and occurrence of the raw materials, and the status of the industry at the time it was prepared. Few of them made any reference to the past history of the ceramic art in their respective States.It will, therefore, be easily seen that all of these factors combined have made the recorded history of the clay-working industry in the United States a somewhat imperfect one. Nor is this all. The earlier writers, and indeed, unfortunately, some of the later ones, have been careless in their choice of descriptive terms, so that difficulty is sometimes encountered in telling the exact nature of the products referred to.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.