On the ground floor of Building No. 10, adjoining the cement and
concrete section, is a storage room for raw materials and product under
investigation. Adjoining this room, and connecting with it by wide
doors, is the grinding room, containing a 5-ft. wet pan, with 2,000-lb.
rollers, to be used for both dry and wet grinding. Later, a heavy dry
pan is to be installed. With these machines, even the hardest material
can be easily disintegrated and prepared. In this room there is also a
jaw crusher for reducing smaller quantities of very hard material, as
well as a 30 by 16-in. iron ball mill, for fine grinding. These machines
are belted to a line shaft along the wall across the building. Ample
sink drainage is provided for flushing and cleaning the wet pan, when
changing from one clay to another.
A large room adjoining is for the operation of all moulding and shaping
machines, representing the usual commercial processes. At present these
include an auger machine, with a rotary universal brick and tile cutter,
Fig. 1, Plate XVI, and a set of brick and special dies, a hand repress
for paving brick, and a hand screw press for dry pressing. The brick
machine is operated from the main shaft which crosses the building in
this room and is driven from a 50-h.p. motor. It is possible thus to
study the power consumption under different loads and with different
clays, as well as with varying degrees of water content in the clay. As
the needs of the work demand it, other types of machines are to be
installed. For special tests in which pressure is an important factor it
is intended to fit up one of the compression testing machines of the
cement section with the necessary dies, thus enabling the pressing to be
carried on under known pressures. Crushing, transverse, and other tests
of clay products are made on the testing machines of the cement and
concrete laboratories.
Outside of the building, in a lean-to, there is a double-chamber rattler
for the testing of paving brick according to the specifications of the
National Brick Manufacturers’ Association.
In the smaller room adjoining the machine laboratory there are two small
wet-grinding ball mills, of two and four jars, respectively, and also a
9-leaf laboratory filter press.
The remaining room on the first floor is devoted to the drying of clays
and clay wares. The equipment consists of a large sheet-iron drying oven
of special construction, which permits of close regulation of the
temperature (Fig. 7). It is heated by gas burners, and is used for the
preliminary heat treatment of raw clays, in connection with the study of
the drying problems of certain raw materials. It is intended to work
with temperatures as high as 250° cent.
Another drying closet, heated by steam coils (Fig. 8), intended for
drying various clay products, has been designed with special reference
to the exact regulation of the temperature, humidity, and velocity of
the air flowing through it. Both dryers connect by flues with an iron
stack outside the building. This stack is provided with a suction fan,
driven by a belt from an electric motor.
On the second floor are the chemical, physical, and research
laboratories, dealing with the precise manipulations of the tests and
investigations.
The chemical laboratory is fully equipped with the necessary apparatus
for carrying on special chemical research in silicate chemistry,
including electrical resistance furnaces, shaking devices, etc. It is
not the intention to do routine work in this laboratory. The office
adjoins this laboratory, and near it is the physical laboratory, devoted
to the study of the structure of raw materials. The latter contains
Nobel and Schoene elutriators, together with viscosimeters of the flow
and the Coulomb and Clark electrical types, sieves, voluminometers,
colorimeters, vernier shrinkage gauges, micrometers, microscopes, and
the necessary balances.
The room across the hall is devoted to the study of the specific
gravity, absorption, porosity, permeability, hardness, translucency,
etc., of burnt-clay products, all the necessary apparatus being
provided. In the two remaining rooms, intended for research work,
special apparatus adapted to the particular investigation may be set up.
All the rooms are piped for water, gas, compressed air, steam, and
drainage, and wired for light and power.
In the kiln house there is a test kiln adapted for solid fuel and gas.
It is of the down-draft type, with an available burning space of about 8
cu. ft. (Fig. 9). For heavier ware and the study of the fire behavior of
clay products under conditions approaching those of practice, a round
down-draft kiln, with an inside diameter of 6 ft., is installed. About
13 ft. above the floor level, and supported by iron beams, there is a
flue parallel to the long side of the structure. This flue conducts the
gases of the kilns to the stack, which is symmetrically located with
reference to the kiln house. Natural gas is the principal fuel. In
addition to these kilns, a small muffle furnace, fired with petroleum,
is provided for the determination of melting points, and an electric
carbon resistance furnace, with an aluminum muffle for high-temperature
work. For crucible-fusion work, a gas-fired pot furnace is installed.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.