Bendigo Pottery
Jun. 23rd, 2011 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithNot the B-word I had in mind, but it'll do for tonight.
There's a few photos of production equipment and some from inside the kilns, because you don't get to look inside pottery kilns often enough, I'm sure.
Unless stated otherwise, text in italics is from the information panels on site.
Bendigo Pottery promotes itself as Australia's oldest working pottery. The guy responsible was a Scottish potter who thought he'd try his luck on the Victorian goldfields, and discovered white gold. So in the late 1850s, he established his own pottery.
These days it's more tourist orientated (museum, classes & souvenir pottery), which is how it "competes" with cheap overseas and plastic goods.
After a lesson :) I kept the two at the front. The other two were returned to the clay from which they came.
Some slightly older products of the pottery.
Acid jars were made from 1863 until 1958 when the introduction of plastic brought an end to their production.
Records indicate that a good thrower could make nine dozen of these jars a day for which he was paid nine pence per jar. From his earnings was deducted the wage of his boy, ₤1 3s. per week. The boy wedged and weighed his clay.
Threading Machine
The earliest bricks made by the pottery were its own firebricks which were made from around 1860 till 1984. Building & decorative bricks were made up until the 1960's.
Now to the first of the kilns. From the website, Bendigo Pottery is thought to have the largest surviving collection of historic wood fired kilns in the world which includes 5 bottle kilns, 3 circular kilns and 2 rectangular kilns.
This is a bottle kiln. The information panel says these were built between 186? and 194?, and provides information and a diagram on how they worked, but it's slightly out of focus so I won't include it here.
The Victorian Heritage Database says The bottle kilns date from c 1868 and apart from ruins at other sites, are the only extant kilns of this type and date in Australia known to the Trust. They are substantially intact, having been subject to continuous use and maintenance, and are possibly the only operable kilns of their type in the world.
Pan Mill (left)
Built in approximately 1930, this mill mixed and crushed raw clay.
Mixing Tank
Crushed clay and water are mixed to form a slurry called slip(?) which could be used for casting or further processed with a filter press for throwing or pressing.
Ram Pump (left)
Used to pump clay slip in the filter press at a pressure of 100 psi.
Filter Press
As slip was pumped in, water filtered out through filter cloth, leaving firm clay cakes between the panels. The panels were separated and the clay cake removed ready for de-airing or wedging and then throwing.
Circular Pipe Kiln
Four of these circular pipe kilns were built between 1880 and 1925, using bricks manufactured on site.
Inside the first one. This has been set up inside as a theatre. Note the ceiling.
Inside the second one, which I think is the one in the external shot. It's a bit dark.
That's better.
Brick Cutting Table
Rectangular Tile Kiln, which doubles as the exit from the museum area.
This rectangular downdraught kiln was built in 1942, specifically for firing salt-glazed terra cotta roof tiles.
To finish off, as it says on the website "view into the current production centre".
There's a few photos of production equipment and some from inside the kilns, because you don't get to look inside pottery kilns often enough, I'm sure.
Unless stated otherwise, text in italics is from the information panels on site.
Bendigo Pottery promotes itself as Australia's oldest working pottery. The guy responsible was a Scottish potter who thought he'd try his luck on the Victorian goldfields, and discovered white gold. So in the late 1850s, he established his own pottery.
These days it's more tourist orientated (museum, classes & souvenir pottery), which is how it "competes" with cheap overseas and plastic goods.
After a lesson :) I kept the two at the front. The other two were returned to the clay from which they came.
Some slightly older products of the pottery.
Acid jars were made from 1863 until 1958 when the introduction of plastic brought an end to their production.
Records indicate that a good thrower could make nine dozen of these jars a day for which he was paid nine pence per jar. From his earnings was deducted the wage of his boy, ₤1 3s. per week. The boy wedged and weighed his clay.
Threading Machine
The earliest bricks made by the pottery were its own firebricks which were made from around 1860 till 1984. Building & decorative bricks were made up until the 1960's.
Now to the first of the kilns. From the website, Bendigo Pottery is thought to have the largest surviving collection of historic wood fired kilns in the world which includes 5 bottle kilns, 3 circular kilns and 2 rectangular kilns.
This is a bottle kiln. The information panel says these were built between 186? and 194?, and provides information and a diagram on how they worked, but it's slightly out of focus so I won't include it here.
The Victorian Heritage Database says The bottle kilns date from c 1868 and apart from ruins at other sites, are the only extant kilns of this type and date in Australia known to the Trust. They are substantially intact, having been subject to continuous use and maintenance, and are possibly the only operable kilns of their type in the world.
Pan Mill (left)
Built in approximately 1930, this mill mixed and crushed raw clay.
Mixing Tank
Crushed clay and water are mixed to form a slurry called slip(?) which could be used for casting or further processed with a filter press for throwing or pressing.
Ram Pump (left)
Used to pump clay slip in the filter press at a pressure of 100 psi.
Filter Press
As slip was pumped in, water filtered out through filter cloth, leaving firm clay cakes between the panels. The panels were separated and the clay cake removed ready for de-airing or wedging and then throwing.
Circular Pipe Kiln
Four of these circular pipe kilns were built between 1880 and 1925, using bricks manufactured on site.
Inside the first one. This has been set up inside as a theatre. Note the ceiling.
Inside the second one, which I think is the one in the external shot. It's a bit dark.
That's better.
Brick Cutting Table
Rectangular Tile Kiln, which doubles as the exit from the museum area.
This rectangular downdraught kiln was built in 1942, specifically for firing salt-glazed terra cotta roof tiles.
To finish off, as it says on the website "view into the current production centre".
no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 06:56 am (UTC)I was pleased with how that one came out.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-25 07:02 am (UTC)Oh, that's good. Most of it is fairly ordinary to me, but I try to make it interesting.