Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII. PRESSING, CASTING, HANDLING, AND STICKING-UP. Pressing is the term applied to the method of making articles by pressing clay on or into moulds in such a manner that it receives the form of the mould, and therefore the piece, when extracted from the mould, is a facsimile in model from which the mould was originally at, owing to the contraction of the clay in drying, it will be smaller in size. The presser requires ttbench on which to work, a plaster block, some 2 ft. 8 inquare, though the size would depend much on the class of work he has to make, usually made on a brick foundation which offers more solidity and strength than if merely placed on the bench; a plaster- headed whirler which revolves in a socket fixed to one of the uprights of the bench. He also requires a drying stove or room surrounded with shelves or pegs for boards on which he can put his ware to dry. These rooms are heated either in the old-fashioned style with fuel in iron pot-stoves, or in the modern manner by steam pipes heated by the exhaust steam from the engine which is more economical and far cleaner, as there is no coal, coke, or ashes carried in and out of the shop. The heat is also more regular, as the pipes can be run all round the room, whereas the pot- stove would probably be in the centre, and the pieces nearit are liable to get dried unevenly, more on the side nearest the stove than on the other, which would be likely to cause cracked or distorted ware. The presser's tools consist of a batter, which is a round plaster block with a handle fixed across it, used to beat and flatten out the clay ; a wooden roller like a rolling-pin is sometimes used for the same purpose. A piece of brass wire to cut up the clay in case he may wish to wedge it before using; sponges of different size...