An Hour Among the Porcelain Manufactories in Greenpoint

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An Hour Among the Porcelain Manufactories in Greenpoint—Where the Door Plates and Knobs Come from—New Uses for Porcelain, &c., &c.

All revolutions, no matter in what, whether in political or commercial or social matters—whether the change have reference to a three days bloody Saturnalia among the facetious people of Paris, or to a sudden transition from straight, hang-down skirts to the balloon-like expanse of crinoline, must possess a certain importance, and be regarded with proportionate interest. In this view, the extensive use of iron in building of fire-proof buildings and steamships—of gutta percha in superseding a dozen other materials in the manufacture of certain articles, and other changes of lesser note that are constantly and almost imperceptibly being made, demand, from time to time, a careful and grateful consideration.

Even in the lesser conveniences of life what a wonderful progress has been made within a very few years. There are plenty of people, and not very old ones either, who can well remember knocking their fingers to pieces with flint or steel, and laboriously eliciting a “light” out of a phosphorous bottle. And now just look at our infinite variety of matches from the lucifer that enables the careless Biddy to light her morning kindling, to those mysterious and odorless conveniences (that surely never could have emanated from the infernal regions, but must have been manufactured in that other place where good matches are said to be made) by which the dreamy cigar smoker is assisted to inhale the incense of his fragrant weed. Think of the numberless contrivances and inventions for our comfort and luxury which the last half-dozen years have brought forth—of our baths and ice houses and ice-coolers—of our fly-traps and mosquito nets—of house bells and marble mantels and sliding-tables—of patent ink-stands and baby-jumpers—of serving machines and street-sweeping machines—in a word give but a passing glance at the fat volumes of Patent Office Reports and bless your stars that fate has cast your lot in the year of our Lord, 1857.

But we set out with a stern determination to say something concerning door-knobs. By all means, let us return to our door-knobs, lest in the meantime, they be superseeded by something else for there is no such thing as staying for a moment this ceaseless flow of inventive genius.

It is but a short time ago that the modest dwelling houses of moderately well-off and poorer classes were ornamented by brass door plates and handles. Everybody knows what execrable things they were (and are, for there are some left yet, more’s the pity!) What an amount of scrubbing and polish they required—what a vast expenditure of toil and turpentine was necessary to keep them in good condition—what a number of nice tempers those same brass knobs spoiled, and what a scent they would leave upon the hand, keep them clean as we would!

Chas. Lamb quotes a Chinese manuscript in his “Dissertation on Roast Pig,” which asseverates that mankind were accustomed to devour their juvenile porkers in a raw or burnt state, for some thousand years before an immortal sage arose who invented the gridiron, bequeathed this precious utensil to his fellows and died, having accomplished his mission. Such is the slow progress of all great reforms, and so it was with the brass door-knobs and kindred articles. The desideratum was to find a substitute for those troublesome articles which should be quite as handsome as silver-plate, cheaper than brass, and which should possess no disadvantages to speak of.

In duet time, a Mr. CARTLIDGE, an Englishman, we believe, and still a resident of this Island, conceived that great things would yet be accomplished with the mixture of clay, bone and feldspar, now so extensively used in so many different shapes, under the name of Porcelain. Through his exertions, a stock company was formed, and commenced operations in Greenpoint, under the name of the “American Porcelain Works.” This was about eight years ago, and here was initiated this new branch of manufacturing, whose products have since gone into such wide-spread use and favor. For the first year or two, however, the scheme was not attended with the degree of success commensurate with the expectations of the sanguine inventor and the association was finally abandoned. Mr. Frisby, a gentleman of New York, then assumed the responsibility of the enterprise, and has carried it on with distinguished success ever since.

The other day we paid a flying visit to Mr. F.’s establishment. We found it to be a large, rambling, three-story building, covering with its kiln-yards and surroundings, a large space of ground. The bottom floor was occupied partly by the raw material, partly by the same in the primary stages of preparation. Here were the calcined bone, fresh from Peter Cooper’s, the feldspar, glittering with mica and newly arrived from Connecticut, and here lay small hillocks of the snow white clay which comes all the way from Delaware. Big mills of peculiar construction were grinding away, and slowly reducing these materials to the finest and most impalpable of powder, and wide-awake workmen were constantly hovering around, now dipping their hands into gigantic tubs of clay-soup in order to ascertain the consistency of the liquid, and now trailing an immense magnet through a tank of “spar” to catch the particles of iron that might be lying perdu in the watery decoction.

In the “modellers’ room” on the second floor we found the various articles which the establishment manufactures, being turned out with marvellous rapidity. The rooms contiguous, or the “packing rooms,” were full of these articles in an unburnt state. Cups and saucers, fine dishes, enormous ornamental pitchers, door-plates and knobs, piano keys, inkstands, clock-faces and a list of other similar affairs too numerous to mention were ready for entrance into the first kiln. For all the finer kinds of work steel moulds are used. The mixture prepared for the mould may be placed within it either in a state of putty or dust or semi-fluid, it matters not. Such is the pressure brought to bear that it comes out the same, a firm smooth and perfect impression, ready with the exception of a few touches at the hands of the workmen, to take its place upon the shelves and await its turn for the concluding process. And talking about the dies, we were shown a little closet containing ten of these, which, to an outsider looked plain and insignificant enough, but which nevertheless, cost in their getting up $5000.

After leaving the first kiln, the ware is taken into the dipping room, where the glaze, consisting of pure spar, is put on, after which another baking is had in the second kiln, which gives the porcelain its brilliant gloss. If it is enamelled and gold is put on, still another baking is given it in the third kiln.

We pass over these details because it is to be presumed that almost everybody is more or less familiar with them, but we confess that we at least were not prepared for the profusion of pretty wonders that met our gaze on the third floor. This is emphatically the “finishing” department, and here the last touches are given to the rare and beautiful work to which this establishment is mainly devoted. Here the decorator and painter presides, surrounded by the products of his patient skill. Those exquisite designs upon your parlor ornaments or what not elegant trifle, which you, Madame, or you good Sir, admire so much, was, most likely, the work of his artistic fancy and facile hand.

The tables all around, we found loaded with articles in a state of completion. There were some half-dozen costly and richly ornamented “presentation pitchers,” intended for various societies, the least of which was capable of holding a pail of water, and these were among the most conspicuous objects. Then there were the fancy trifles of all shapes and sizes glittering with gold and variegated colors. But with our usual utilitarian proclivities we turned from them to a lot of preserve pots, which can be made by a little cement to answer the same purpose as self-sealing cans, and are destined to supercede the old fashioned paper covered affairs, in which thrifty housewives still persist in indulging. Then there were the new fashioned porcelain piano-keys, an invention which originated in this establishment, and which on the score of cheapness and beauty are far superior to the key now in use—never turning yellow and always retaining their polish. A few steps brought us in contiguity with some barrels of “castor-wheels” for beds and sofas, also of porcelain, the smallest size of which will bear a weight of two tons and larger in proportion. Then came the door plates with their dark grounds and white letters, and very familiar looked the interesting legends “BROWN” and “THOMPSON,” giving the information gratuitously, and on their own hook, and attached to nothing whatever! Of door-knobs, plain and ornamented, there were enough to supply half the doors in the district; of bell-handles there were enough to break all the bell-wires on the South Side. We fear that there were more than sufficient “numbers” for church-pews, done in nice white and gold letters, than will be called for, in all probability, for some time to come. Then there were water-gauges and clock-faces in profusion, and apropos of the latter, the establishment furnished over $40,000 worth to the Jerome Manufacturing Clock Co., and lost a nice little sum by the smash-up of Barnum’s pet project.

Proceeding a little further, we came to the cup and saucer department, and very beautiful specimens of the art were on exhibition in the said department. But judge of our horror and surprise at beholding our polite and attentive conductor, apparently seized with a sudden paroxysm of insanity, make a rash and frantic blow at a tray of these polished and semi-translucent articles, which sent them flying over the floor. We stared at our guide. He smiled benignantly, but did not foam at the mouth nor show the smallest propensity to bite. All the cups were safe and intact—nothing was injured. We picked up one of them, and became convinced on inspection, and after such a proof, that they were rather less liable to injury, than pewter pots. We believe conscientiously in the “soundness” of porcelain breakfast cups.

After rather less than an hour’s inspection, we left, convinced that a day might be profitably spent in an examination of the various processes employed in this interesting branch of manufacture.

Not very far from the last named establishment stands the Porcelain Works of BOCK BROS. The gentlemen, we believe, graduated at the manufactory just described, and their place is much more extensive—they doing rather a different class of work, namely a very great quantity of the larger and coarser description—while the older establishment confines itself to that of the finer sort. The various processes are, however, almost precisely the same.

In both places a large number of men are employed and both possess steam-engines of from 15 to 25 horsepower. The business is an extension and, we believe, a profitable one: and in a few years will, in all probability, become much more so.