White-Burning Clays of the Southern Appalachian States (9edd19b5-70b5-4f3b-8d3d-bd472da8eace)

Discussion of the paper of JOEL H. WATKINS, presented at the New Fork meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 391 to 411. H. Rims, Ithaca, N. Y.-It is interesting to contemplate to what extent the American pottery industry would be affected in case the English supply of china clay were shut off for a considerable period of time. The English deposits are very large, and are worked on a most extensive scale. They are more easily and probably more cheaply worked than our American deposits, which are of vein-like nature. The American producer of washed clay is not always as careful as the foreign miner and washer of this material, although he has improved in recent years. Our American washing plants are, furthermore, not as economical of material as it seems to me they might be, for the reason that more or less of the finest clay is often allowed to overflow, due to insufficient settling tank capacity. This fact is often shown by the milky character, of the streams into which the waste water is discharged.