CLAY AND CLAY PRODUCTS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 53, 4 March 1922, Page 6

CLAY AND CLAY PRODUCTS

AN INTERESTING LECTURE,

A large ■ audience, , ohiefly consisting of college girl students, attended the Dominion Museum yesterday to hear a lecture by Mr. Joseph Keele, ceramic engineer of the Canadian Department of Mine*. Mr. P_ G. Morgan, Director of the Geological Survey, presided. The museum-had been drawn upon for a number of exhibits to -illustrate the lecture, including ancient pieces of pottery excavated in the Nile Valley, and Greek, Chinese,' and Indian specimens of various ages. In addition to these "classical" I specimens, there were a number of samples of clay, in the raw state, and also worked up and burnt, indicating the results of experiments made on New Zealand clays at the Dominion Laboratory. Round this material, Mr. Keele wove an interesting fabrio of instructive f.alk. He described -"a good piece of burnt clay" as probably the most indestructible thing .known.. The archaeologists secured meet of their information from burnt day artioles because of their indestructibility. Pottery had been excavated in the Nile" Valley, probably 30,000 to ♦0.000 years old; yet it was made not of good clay, but of mud, material that a modern potter would reject with scorn. The lecturer gave a short sketch >f the history of ceramics, and; of the typical methods of working adopted by the ancient people in the Near, Middle, and Far East. >

Regarding New Zealand olays, Mr. Keele said .that the country hail'abundant supplies, especially.of the sorts- suitable for making stoneware. He regarded these as more valuable to tho country than the higher-priced China clays. The high importance of clay, he said, wds not recognised in Australasia as it was in America. Taking a big American office building as an example, he analysed its substance into a skeleton of steel, a little wood, and a vast bulk of burnt-clay produ'ots—bricks, terracotta facing (white or cream), and tiles. Australasia, he said, hardly knew what a good job in brickwork was; and he gave interesting information about tho modern method of building in ornamental bricks. Uniformity of colour and surface was avoided, and a iparti-ooloured wall with wide white mortar joints had a very rich effect. '

Professor Tennant expressed, on behalf of, the audience, gratitude to the lecturer for his interesting and informative address.