Thus far we have attempted to review, in the briefest manner, some of the earlier potteries in the United States. The space at command has only permitted the bare statement of facts relating to the condition of the ceramic industry down to the period just preceding the Centennial Exposition of 1876. It has not been possible to refer to many establishments whose record would be necessary to a full history of the development of this art. Let us now see what progress has been made in the methods employed in this country down to the present time.
The potter's wheel used well into the present century was a clumsy and primitive affair. It consisted of a perpendicular beam, generally about two feet in height, surmounted by a circular disk a foot or so in diameter. At the lower extremity of the beam or axis was a horizontal wooden wheel, four feet across, possessing four inclined iron spokes which extended from the beam to the rim of the wheel, which the workman pushed around with his feet. He sat on a framework behind the wheel, while in front were piled the lumps of clay to be manipulated.
Fig. 13.—Old-fashioned "Throwing Wheel."
A great advance was made in potters' machinery a few years later, or in the first quarter of the present century, when the "throwing wheel" was introduced into the more prominent factories. This was composed of a plate or disk which was revolved by means of a belt which passed around two spindles and extended to a large vertical wheel operated by a crank in the hands of a second person. This upright wheel usually measured four, five, or more feet in diameter, depending on the rate of velocity desired; the larger the wheel, the greater the speed to be attained.
