KENSINGTON STONEWARE PIPE FACTORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 23

KENSINGTON STONEWARE PIPE FACTORY.

It is now, about six years since Mr W. M. White began on a small scale at Kensington the manufacture of glazed stoneware piping, an industry which has all along been a rising one proportionately with the opening up of roads and railways'and the carrying out of drainage schemes in boroughs and on country holdings. The Kensington works are now|on an extensive scale, and to provide for increasing demands' Mr White 'recently left for England with the object of procuring an additional quantity of machinery combining the latest improvements. .About 12 months ago a few alterations were effected at the works, and since then two large kilns have been erected.' The building is a brick one, consisting of three ' floors, and is , 120 feet in length by 60 feet in width. The kilns are enormous structures, being about 16 feet in diameter, and extending almost to the roof. They are built of fire-bricks throughout, being lined with fire-blocks, and having lower walls four feet in thickness, with inner detached lining walls, the outer walls being heavily bound in iron. The clay used in the manufacture of the pipes is obtained from Lovell's Flat, and the two kinds used are a white fire-clay and a clay of yellowish colour. The^e are thoroughly mixed together and allowed to stand for some time, after which the clay thus prepared is ground by rollers. It is then passed through a horizontal machine, t in the upper part of which it receives further pulverising, and as it descends it is forced through a die or metal fixture having a circular aperture of the size required to give the pipe its precise form. These dies are of various dimensions from four to 18 inches, suited to'all classes of pipes, and are substituted as required. The pipes as they pass from the machine are allowed to remain for a time on the floors until they are thoroughly dried, prior to flangeing. For drying purposes the third floor is specially adapted, being laid with narrow boards some distance apart, so that the free action of the air, together with the great heat derived from the kilns, soon hardens the pipes. They are next flanged on a wheel resembling a potter's. The clay for flangeing is put through a hand machine on the ground floor, and emerges in two large rolls at a time. These rolls are then applied by the operator to the top of the pipe to be flanged, and the wheel being set rapidly in motion, the work is very speedily executed. The pipes so formed are removed to the kiln, and piled one above another, the smaller ones being placed inside of those proportionately larger, so as to economise fuel wherever po&sible. Fire having been applied, the kiln is kept at an exceedingly high temperature for fully a week, by which time the pipes will have become sufficiently burned. A short time before the temperature is reduced, and prior to allowing the kiln to cool, the salt-glazing is accomplished by running salt into the furnace from the top, to be diffused over the pipes by the extreme heat,

All kinds of piping, varying from four to 18 inches in diameter, and including bends, junctions, square ends, &c., are turned out. The business, which is at present under the management of Mr John Garratt, has extended so much that orders are continually being received from many parts of the country between Timaru and Invercargill.