Pots
Read about Pots in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Pots. Of the three firms of interest to horticulturists that are eligible to the Century Club because of one hundred years or more in the same business, are A. H. Hews & Co., potters, and J. M. Thorburn & Co., of New York, and D. Landreth & Co., of Philadelphia. This indicates the age of the flower-pot business in this country. The first entry in the oldest Hews account book reads as follows: Weston, April 19, 1775, Lemuel Jones, to Ware, debtor: 0£ 2s. 8d. From 1788 to 1810, a period of twenty-one years, there is a continuous account. The charges within that entire term cover about as many pages as are now often entered in a day; and the amount in dollars and cents does not compare with single sales of the present time. Through all the years up to 1807 the term "flower-pots" does not once appear, and it is much to be regretted that the first sale of flowerpots and the name of the purchaser cannot be found. In 1861, after war was actually declared, business conditions were much depressed. The members of the Hews firm felt sure that there would be no demand for flower-pots, they being more of a luxury than a necessity, and that the factory must close. At that time the writer succeeded in securing permission to make his first venture as salesman "on the road." Going first to C. M. Hovey, he secured what was a good order for those times, some 10,000 or more pots for the spring trade of 1862. Not once after that, during the Civil War, was the firm able, in the spring and fall rush, to fill all their orders for flower-pots. It is not that these orders were remarkably large or numerous, but they were beyond the capacity of the firm. In 1866, prices were a third or a half higher than they are today. The firm first got fairly under way with machinery for making small flower-pots in 1869. Until about 1864 or 1865, common flower-pots throughout the world had always been made by hand on the potter's wheel. There have been, indeed, many different forms of this wheel, but it had always been propelled by hand- or foot-power. When, in the early fifties, a wheel was made to be propelled by the foot, with two sizes of pulleys and a balance-wheel whereby the speed of the wheel was increased in the proportion of three to one, it was thought that perfection had been reached. Much time, though very little money, had been spent previous to the fifties in attempts to make a pot machine. It was left to William Linton, of Baltimore, an experienced practical potter, to perfect and patent the first machine. From him two machines were purchased and the exclusive right to use them in Massachusetts. In a short time great improvements were made on his patent. America was far ahead of Europe in this kind of machinery, as also in improved machinery in general. The machine made only small pots, up to about 5 inches in diameter; and while it had previously taken an experienced man to make his thousand 3-inch pots in ten hours, a smart boy without any previous experience whatever could make 3,000 on the machine in the same time. When the standard pot was adopted, about twenty- five years ago, the hand-process was practically abandoned in the principal potteries in favor of what is technically called the jigger. This is a revolving disc propelled by machinery. These discs, or jigger-heads; are made of different sizes and fitted with various rings. Plaster molds are made in very large numbers for each size of pot, and the larger standard pots (6- to 12-inch) are all made at the present time in these molds. The old methods have now passed. The making of the pot is not its only cost: previous to that comes the preparation of the clay. The hundred years from 1765 to 1865 saw no improvement in the process of preparing it for use. It was ground in a wooden tank or tub, propelled by an ox. The various other processes remained as crude in 1865 as they had been the century previous: the drying, firing, and all connected with the manufacture. The capacity of our flower-pot drying-rooms of today far exceeds the entire product of any one year prior to 1865. At that time the custom of using wood for drying and firing pots still continued. It required three cords of white pine and from thirty to forty hours labor thoroughly to fire a small furnace. Today three tons of bituminous coal will fire five times as much pottery in fifteen hours. Grades of clay used in the manufacture of flower-pots are almost as numerous as the banks in which they are found, and require many different methods of treatment. To separate the stones from the clay has always been a very perplexing as well as expensive problem. The clay is first plowed by means of a horse and capstan, whereby one horse will do the work of twenty men with picks. This clay is then loaded in dumpcarts and carried to the mill, where it is shoveled through a disintegrator, which expels the larger stones and crushes the smaller ones. It then falls on an endless belt and is carried to a revolving drier. This is a western device, with which, by the use of crude petroleum for heat, from 20 to 25 per cent of moisture is evaporated from the clay, and while it passes through a direct blaze of white heat there is sufficient moisture all the time to prevent it from burning. (Burning of the clay at this stage would make it worthless.) To demonstrate this point beyond question, paper and dry shavings have been passed through with the clay, and they came out without even scorching. From the drier, the clay goes into large bins, where it must remain twenty-four hours, so that portions of it which have become too dry and hard may absorb the moisture from that not dry enough. From these bins it is carried to whippers, which beat the clay without further crushing the stone. From the whipper it goes to the revolving screens, and thence to the elevators. The next process is mixing, or, as it is termed, "pugging." This is all done by machinery. From one machine the clay comes out very soft and plastic, to be worked in plaster molds. From the other the clay comes out into hard cubes for the irom molds of the machine. The pot machine and the jigger of today each does the work of six to eight men at the wheel. The difference in cost between a good and a poor pot is very slight, and if the florist will demand and accept nothing but a first-class pot, a standard in quality as well as size will soon be reached. To be standard in quality a pot must be of clay properly prepared, be of uniform firing, and of a smooth surface inside as well as out. It must also be of right porosity, a condition which can be attained by the proper mixture of clay. Moreover, a machine-made pot should have a smooth run on the inside, so that the man standing at his bench potting thousands of plants a day, as is being done constantly in large establishments, may have flesh remaining on his thumbs at night. Such a pot must also be able to stand transportation and years of usage if necessary. "Standard flower-pots, such as are now used by American florists, are shown in Figs. 3160, 3161. A. H. Hews.
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Pots. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Pots QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)