china clay dries

[Cornish_Rail]

hello ive been givin a 4ft china clay dries off a the old hayle club layout and i didnt know if each compartmant each seperated by a wall or were they linked into i havent been able to find a decent pictures to comfirm it ??

 

thankyou cornish

 

 

[Stoker]

hello ive been givin a 4ft china clay dries off a the old hayle club layout and i didnt know if each compartmant each seperated by a wall or were they linked into i havent been able to find a decent pictures to comfirm it ??

 

thankyou cornish

 

 

 

First thing you need to establish is what type of building you've got. The china clay industry used several building types over the years.

 

There is the coal fired pan kiln, which is a long, narrow building built into a hillside, with a half granite half brick chimney stack at one end, and an asymmetrical roof. Internally these were made up of 2 terraces, the lower one being trackside, and used for clay storage, the higher one being the heated drying floor. Generally these were open spaces throughout the length of the building.

 

Then there is the modern mechanical clay drying plant. These are made up of large, wide clay storage buildings with huge pitched roofs, and smaller buildings containing the actual drying equipment. They were made out of corrugated asbestos, steel beams and concrete. The interior of the storage buildings were partitioned into bays,

 

Once you've figured this out come back to us. Or post photographs. I can probably answer your question from photographs.

[Coombe Barton]

Would a visit to Wheal Martyn help? http://www.wheal-martyn.com/ Can't find any pix of the linhay on their website though

 

And there's also the ones on the Penzance-St Just Road just on the Penzance side of Semmens yard. Had a look at them on Goodle Maps but couldn't see anything - overgrown. Bit of field work might turn something up.

[R A Watson]

The usual format is that in the traditional Linhay type dries the outdoor parts are separated by walls to form a series of settling tanks into which the liquid slurry is piped and left until most of the water has drained off, to leave the cake virtually solid and capable of being walked upon (although this was not a prefered practice as it could result in damaging the quality of the clay).

 

Once it was dry enough the cake was dug out and shovelled onto the floor of the indoor portion for final drying until the required consistency was reached. This floor was built over a series of flues which ran the length of the building carrying the gases and heat from the fire in the furnace. One point not always realised by modellers is that the fire and the chimney are at opposite ends of the building, some times with larger dries there were two furnaces, one at each end, with the chimney in the middle of the building. The building at Cantrell Dries (between Ivybridge and Bittaford Viaduct) is one such.

 

Wally

[Stoker]

The usual format is that in the traditional Linhay type dries the outdoor parts are separated by walls to form a series of settling tanks into which the liquid slurry is piped and left until most of the water has drained off, to leave the cake virtually solid and capable of being walked upon (although this was not a prefered practice as it could result in damaging the quality of the clay).

 

Once it was dry enough the cake was dug out and shovelled onto the floor of the indoor portion for final drying until the required consistency was reached. This floor was built over a series of flues which ran the length of the building carrying the gases and heat from the fire in the furnace. One point not always realised by modellers is that the fire and the chimney are at opposite ends of the building, some times with larger dries there were two furnaces, one at each end, with the chimney in the middle of the building. The building at Cantrell Dries (between Ivybridge and Bittaford Viaduct) is one such.

 

Wally

 

Bravo sir, most people get a lot of these details incorrect. You are quite correct about the clay being left to thicken, but it was usually only to the consistency of butter. If you walked on it you'd sink quite quickly I'm afraid! I've heard a number of funny stories relating to people falling into clay in varying states of drunk! Shovelling this clay into the wagon, so that it could be taken indoors, was an awful task. It did not like to stay on the shovel, and there was a knack to staying upright and sure-footed! To make life worse, this job had to be done even faster in the rain, if it was to be done at all. And if that wasn't bad enough, kiln workers would be stripped to the waist year round, too, due to the heat of the dry. Even if it was snowing very heavily, the roof would not have so much as a flake on it, even if it was the thickest delabole slate - such was the heat. There's not many old boys about who remember working in kilns like that, but the ones I meet occasionally get my total respect, and a bottle of whiskey as gratitude for telling me their stories. I've only met one old boy so far who wouldn't accept his gift, and that was because he was a tee-total methodist!

[R A Watson]

Most of my tales come from the Lee Moor end of the world, not t'other side of the Tamar, and beng Devonians, not grasping Cornish, we would not attempt to shift the stuff until it was stiff enough to support the worker!

 

But, seriously, your mention of shovelling the clay into wagons to facilitate the spreading on the drying floor introduces the use of traversing bridges and other technicalities, of which most of our readers probably do not know!

 

This may bring further confusion on a subject which you and I may know more about than most casual readers. The aparent difference in terminology between "Dries" the old method of working and "Driers" the modern plant is one of the more glaring examples.

 

Perhaps the other readers may wish further explanation, and if so I am sure they will let us know.

 

Wally

[Gwiwer]

wouldn't accept his gift, and that was because he was a tee-total methodist!

 

Proper Cornish then B) Probably referred to himself as a "Methody" an'all.

 

Any chance of seeing a pic of the building in question? It's been a long time since I saw anything from Hayle MRC. Since 1998 in fact. I'm therefore not sure on which one we are discussing.

 

With respect to terminology I support the view that "dries" was the term used backalong and which has become "dryers" now. Wenford was always the "dries" for example but since closure it has become referred to by some people as "The old dryers". Judging from the accents those are not people who have lived long and worked in the area.

[Shamouti Ben Yafo]

Oddly enough, a building on the Gloucester - Sharpness Canal, which was used to store salt for export, is still referred to as the Salt Dries - i.e. an area of dry storage away from the elements. Were/are there no corresponding examples in Clay Country?

[Coombe Barton]

Another use of the term dry is the Miners Dry - the changing rooms for the hard rock crew. The change in terminoology from "Dries" to "Driers" had escaped me. Wonder why? Could it be that the terminiology is changing because the ownership of the companies is less local than it once was?

[Gwiwer]

The change in terminoology from "Dries" to "Driers" had escaped me. Wonder why? Could it be that the terminiology is changing because the ownership of the companies is less local than it once was?

 

I suspect it isn't the ownership being less local (true though that is) but the hearing of the local accent by "incomers". With a greater proportion of the latter living in the area now than perhaps 50 years ago it doesn't take much imagination to alter a Cornish accent saying "Dries" to "Driers" in the mind since that may be the more logical word.

 

The difference is quite subtle but might perhaps be phonetically transcribed as "Dryze" and "Dryez".

[Stoker]

The difference in terminology came when mechanical drying technology was introduced. This equipment came along with manuals and installation crews who told the ECLP employees how it all worked. Hence, a non Cornish term was introduced to the vocab.

 

It makes sense really, a "dry" suggest more a work place, a "dryer" suggest a thing, a machine, performing the function.

 

One thing that I do not know much about, and would like to find more information on, is the nature and construction of the first few mechanical dryers.

[R A Watson]

Yet another re-start for this thread, but I have just come across these couple of pictures. Although on a site dedicated to Lee Moor they illustrate the inside of a Linhay dry and a rather interesting scene of rail wagons being loaded.

 

The first one is an internal detail showing the traversing bridge carrying a "captive" wagon which was loaded with the stiff slurry from the outside settling beds then positioned over the pan kiln for unloadng the clay for final drying. The clay in the main part is nearly ready for shipping; as it can be seen to be divided up to assist the final drying and subsequent shovelling up onto the area on the right from where it will be loaded into the rail wagons.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/DB.Shaugh/LeeMoor#5137475567956161554

 

This is definately not at Lee Moor, as the standard gauge was never closer than some ten miles away! but does show the method of loading used for most of the time this type of plant was in operation.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/DB.Shaugh/LeeMoor#5137475580841063474

[Karhedron]

This is definately not at Lee Moor, as the standard gauge was never closer than some ten miles away! but does show the method of loading used for most of the time this type of plant was in operation.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/DB.Shaugh/LeeMoor#5137475580841063474

This shot is of Drinnick Mill.

 

Purely by coincidence I stumbled across this shot of the rotary Blackpool Dries circa 1970.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_snL9IUPzWgI/SZc_RCd8ECI/AAAAAAAAYFA/oVEEPyQxQ_Y/s1600-h/China+Claysmall.jpg

[Stoker]

This shot is of Drinnick Mill.

 

Purely by coincidence I stumbled across this shot of the rotary Blackpool Dries circa 1970.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot...a+Claysmall.jpg

 

Even earlier than that. This particular photo of Blackpool rotary dryer was taken not long after it was built, in the 1960s. I've yet to find out quite why there were so many steam stacks emerging from the roof. In theory only one should be necessary.