"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 19:08:02 -0000, "Jim GM4DHJ ..."
wrote:


"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 21 Mar 2017 17:48:27 -0000, "Jim GM4DHJ ..."
wrote:


"Tim Streater" wrote in message
et...
In article , Chris Hogg
wrote:

*wash basins and toilets would be glazed and fired at about 1200°C,
steel baths were enamelled and fired at say 900°C, while GRP baths
were cold-formed, all requiring different pigment compositions.

Reminds me of the furnace we wandered up to in the Azores (no Elfin
Safety there), firing up china at 1200C. We saw them prepping stuff
for
firing - pink pigment that became blue afterwards.

reminds me of the old shanks factory in Barrhead where there were
thousands
of white balls about 9 inch diameter lying about I assumed they were
test
items for the furnace...anybody know different ? ....

I've visited many sanitaryware factories in my day, UK and abroad,
although I don't think ever actually Shanks at Barrhead*. I've never
seen what you've described. But many years ago, say pre-war and 1950's
and 1960's, such factories would wet-grind some of their raw
materials, the so-called non-plastics, quartz and feldspar or
nepheline-syenite being the most common. The balls you saw were
probably grinding balls, usually alumina, but I'm surprised they were
that large; I'd have said 3 - 4" was more common. I can't think what
else they might have been. In later years, all the mfrs would buy
their raw materials from central millers, who did all the grinding for
them.

*I do remember the technical manager from Shanks, Barrhead, giving a
paper at a ceramic industries conference, entitled 'The wind of change
in sanitaryware', which cause some amusement.

yes they may have been smaller as you say...it was 1974 when I worked for
Leggat doing some alterations.........wind...tee hee...going to the shunky
as they say up here .....

I can imagine that as Barrhead was rather remote in terms of ceramic
manufacturing, they may have continued grinding their own materials
rather later than many.

http://i3.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming...615/shank2.jpg

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/medium/49796393.jpg

there is one!

http://mapio.net/pic/p-49796393/

In the Stoke area, those broken bits get finely ground and
incorporated into wall tiles, a process pioneered by H&R Johnson in
the 1990's. It solves a disposal problem for the ceramic industry, as
well as being a cheap raw material for Johnson's to incorporate into
their mix, at about 10% IIRC.


Chris


very interesting thanks ......