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Show I : UTAH'S CLAY INDUSTRY v, . i - trf-$r4a Utah Fii e Clay Plant at f T i - SgC..? Sad- Lake City f , &Jt- lU ! Bnck-Makng Plant at f By LESLIE SQUIRES General Manager Utah Fire Clay Company AMAZING developments of the clay Industry In Utah will be witnessed if the advances of the last 80 years continue at anywhere any-where near the same rate. The pioneer dug his clay trom the hillside, trampled it in layers, cut it while wet into blocks and let ' the sun do the rest. Houses built of "adobe" brick still stand in towns and on farms, proving not I only the skill of the early brick-! brick-! makers, but the virtues of the clay they used. From brick to tile was j a short step and, as facilities improved, im-proved, clay products were multi-I multi-I plied. Utah is fortunate in having j many kinds of clay. If the right sort is not available in one local-! local-! lty it is pretty sure to be present : in another. I Six plants devoted exclusively to j the manufacture of clay goods and silica refractories are now operating operat-ing in Utah, not to speak of small local brick plants scattered throughout the state. The major plants are located in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, Murray and Smithfleld. Their ever-growing list : of products includes vitrified salt-glazed salt-glazed sewer pipe and fittings, i farm drain tile, silica brick, fire : brick, assayers' clay crucibles and ! scoriflers, fire clay shapes for boilers, locomotives, steel mills and foundries, paving brick, high grade 1 shale and fire clay face brick, common com-mon brick, hollow building and i partition blocks, clay shingles, wall , coping, flue lining and many spe-i spe-i cial designs. I Manufacture and sale of the pro-i pro-i ducts give employment to an aver-' aver-' age of 300 men the year around ! with an annual payroll of about $400,000. The processes call for the yearly production of about 100.000 tons of clay, to burn which, i fuel to the value of $150,000 is con-, con-, sumed. For supplies, power, freight, taxes and such expenses : not less than $250,000 is disbursed, j Though Salt Lake valley snielt- ers and widespread building con-1 con-1 struction constitute a steady mar-j mar-j ket, sales of specialties beyond the , borders of the state indicate the possibilities of expansion. Silica j brick is shipped to surrounding states and orders for crucibles and Bcorlfiers are received from all over I the world. I Production facilities are ample for a growing business. It is esti-j esti-j mated that, with all plants operat-, operat-, lng a daily 8-hour shift at full , capacity, there would be manufac-1 manufac-1 tured each day enough facing and ' backing brick to construct 30 flve-i flve-i room cottages, pipe for lLi miles of sewer and tile for 4 miles of drains. Hollow blocks for smokestacks hundreds of feet tall and tile for silos are made from clay. Underground Under-ground wiring is facilitated by clay conduits, and the use of finer clays in the making of porcelain is beginning to be recognized in Utah. So far Utah county is the best known source of ceramic material. Clay banks of alluvial and glacial origin are found in Cache, Weber, Morgan, Salt Lake and Utah counties. coun-ties. To date the production of fire clay has been confined to Utah county, where the basic material is carboniferous. To make silica brick the manfacturer goes to the Cambrian formation in Juab county. coun-ty. Brickmaking in 1937 presents an astonishing contrast to the almost primitive methods of 1857. Describing Des-cribing a typical operation of today the manager of a large brick company com-pany says: "Starting at clay beds averaging 15 feet In thickness, ten teams scrape up the clay and lay it on platforms. Thence It is hauled by electric trains to mixing and pulverizing pul-verizing sheds. From there it Is conveyed by endless belts to the bins, where the right amount of moisture is added. The next step is working the clay through the 'pug' mills. These are heavy cast iron mixing machines which knead the clay to the proper consistency for molding Into what are called 'green brick'. Attached to the end of the pug mills are forms, or dies, out of which come bricks of the correct length and height. "To make pressed brick the clay is handled in much the same manner, man-ner, except as it comes out of the mixing bins it is fed into massive presses. From the presses the brick is conveyed to the kilns for burning. A fire of powdered coal is started at one end and carried the entire length by forced draft. When heated to 2.,o0 degrees the brick are allowed to cool. Wagons are lowered into the kiln by an electric crane, loaded and set outside, out-side, to be hauled by teams to their destination." Ever since the day of the humble adobe, Utah has been a "brick state". Few parts of the Union have a higher percentage of brick structures. Steel mills and sugar factories need refractory brick for their furnaces; municipalities, pipe for their sanitary sewers; drainage drain-age districts, tile to reclaim their lands. Thus one industry fosters many others. An investment of about $2,245,000, it is estimated, is represented by the plants in Utah devoted exclusively to the manufacture manu-facture of clay goods and silica refractories. |