Pottery Slip House: Inside an Unseen World!

We visited Middleport Pottery and its Slip House on the Factory Tour and learned the pottery production secrets of the Blunger, Filter Press and Pug Mill.
The Slip House is where raw ingredients are interspersed in large containers called blungers. Liquid clay is then transferred below the ground to the mixing ark. This underground container keeps the clay cool, and the clay which is now referred to as slip is kept constantly moving by means of a large automated paddle. Once this liquid clay has reached the correct consistency, it is pumped upstairs to the casting shops where it is poured into plaster moulds and used to make hollow-ware such as jugs and teapots. Waste clay returns to the slip house, and can be mixed back into the system and reused.
A blunger is a machine commonly used in the pottery industry for mixing slip, a mixture of clay and water. A blunger usually consists of a round or octagonal tank with a mixer. Clay is added to the water-filled blunger and then mixed into a slurry, which is also called slip. The electrical charge of the clay particles is neutralized by the addition of a deflocculant, which assists in keeping the particles in suspension. This slip can be then sieved as it is emptied from the blunger.
Ceramics pug mills, or commonly just "pugs", are not used to grind or mix, rather they extrude clay bodies prior to shaping processes. Some can be fitted with a vacuum system that ensures the extruded clay bodies have no entrapped air. According to the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary, a clay pug mill typically consists of an upright shaft armed with projecting knives, which is caused to revolve in a hollow cylinder, tub, or vat, in which the clay body is placed.
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