Ceramics Through Time

Ceramics by definition are inorganic solid, nonmetallic substances made by the action of heating and cooling. Ceramics are found in everything from toilets to car spark plugs to the space shuttle. The class of materials includes glass, bricks, tiles, and pottery. Ceramic pottery are among the oldest man-made objects found.

Prehistoric Pottery Shards

Prehistoric Pottery

Prehistoric Pottery

The oldest prehistoric pottery discovered was created 26,000 years ago according to radio carbon dating. Early man discovered that mixing mammoth fat with bone, bone ash, and loess could be molded and dried in the sun to produce a fragile, heat-resistant material. Thus was born an early form of ceramic art. Around 6,000 BC, the ancient Greeks discovered that firing the soft clay produced a stronger pot they used for storage and burials.

Ancient Greek Pottery

Ancient Greek Pottery

                                                                                                                                               The next step in the development of ceramics was a precursor to glass called faience developed and used extensively by the ancient Egyptians around 4,000 BC. This material was the first known use of a glaze that can be seen on the objects pictured below.

Ancient Egyptian Jewelry

Egyptian Faience Figure

Porcelain, consisting of kaolin clay, glazing, and heating to 1,200 degrees Celsius, was discovered by the Chinese circa 600 AD. The high temperatures make porcelain very tough and very strong. As the pictures below indicate, porcelain can also be a beautiful medium for artistic expression.

Early Chinese Vase

Early Chine Vase

The next important advance was the development of refractory ceramics in 1870. This ceramic material could withstand very high temperatures and was used to make building bricks and bricks to line kilns and steel ovens. This was an important technology that advanced the industrial revolution.

Kiln Bricks

Replacing Bricks in Kiln

The broad definition of ceramics includes glass, china, porcelain, bricks, and dinnerware. The importance of this material in all our lives cannot be overstated.

Questions to Research

1. In what ways have you used a ceramic material today?

2. How would your life change if your access to ceramics was suddenly cut off?

3. How are ceramics used in the aerospace industries?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Day Six - The Pittsburgh Glass Center

The last day of our glass and ceramics quest takes us to the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) is dedicated to reviving the glass industry that once rivaled steel as the primary economic engine for Pittsburgh. Just think, the Pittsburgh Steelers could have been the Pittsburgh Glassblowers.

In today's world market economy, the glass producers that were once numerous in and around Pittsburgh have been driven out of business by the low labor costs in China and other developing countries. Glass production in the Ohio River Valley has moved from the industrial mass market to the art market. PGC is facilitating the revival of glass making by by offering classes in hand-blown glass to the general public.

PGC offers individuals the opportunity to produce their own glass products from paperweights to ornaments to pumpkins. They offer classes in hand-blown glass for those interested in learning the craft and demonstrations for schoolchildren to promote the industry. They offer long-term residencies for those interested in seriously producing hand-blown glass as a marketable product. The images below are of works by artists active in the center.

Coral Reef Scene

Octopus Eating a Turtle

Sea Urchin

Layered Glass Vase

After leaving Pittsburgh Glass Center, our intrepid band headed for I-79 and the road to Huntington. After learning that the industrial production of glass has largely moved to other countries with lower labor costs, we discovered the glass industry is still very much alive in the Ohio Valley. It is in the process of transforming itself into a cottage and small factory industry producing high quality fine glass products for the art industry.

Day Six - Carnegie Museum

Day five opened in Pittsburgh with another warm , humid day. Today we are visiting the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art.

As we enter the main entrance to both museums, artworks of glass by the Czeck artist Petr Hora   similar to the ones pictured below, were prominently displayed.

Glass artwork from the American artist Sidney Hutter, like the works pictured below, lined the entrance.

The Museum of Natural History featured exhibits on ancient Egypt, the history of Saudi Arabia, and on life in the Arctic. We viewed the various exhibits looking for examples of the use of glass. Ancient Egyptians were among the first cultures to use glass and a precursor to glass called faience. The Carnegie Museum exhibits included many figures like the ones pictured below.

The Egyptian exhibit also included faience used to make drinking vessels and elaborate jewelry like that pictured below.

The Phipps Conservatory was the next stop on our glass and ceramics trip. The Phipps Conservatory is dedicated to educating the public about sustainability in everything from agriculture, to public landscaping, to home gardening. Our focus on glass suggests that the most important use of glass is in the architecture of the conservatory itself. Most of the above ground structure is made of glass.

  

The conservatory is only possible because the properties of glass allow light in but also seals well enough to create the environmental conditions necessary for exotic plants to thrive. The ceiling shown below is typical of all the ceilings and roofs in the building, and shows how light easily penetrates glass.

Glass was also used in sculptures and artwork that were strategically placed in each biome to merge art and landscaping.

Questions

1. Why is it important for conservatories to include rare species of plants in their exhibits?

2. Why is the ability of glass to allow light to pass through it, both life enabling and life threatening for exotic plants in the conservatory?

3. How does climate change affect the operation of a conservatory? (Think of a greenhouse)

Day Four - Mosser Glass

Thursday, July 18, 2013 began with a low ceiling of clouds, a high level of humidity, and a moderate level of wakefulness among the Cabell County cadre of teachers exploring the glass and ceramics industry in West Virginia. Today we actually explored a bit of the glass industry in the neighboring state of Ohio. We visited the Mosser Glass Company  in Cambridge, Ohio

The Mosser Glass Company makes high quality glassware for retail sale and glassware for the pharmaceutical industry.This includes glass funnels and vacuum Bell jars.

Mosser Glass Company also produces specialty parts for for the antique auto industry, like the headlight lenses pictured below ready to be packed and shipped. Other specialty auto products include tail light and park light lenses for a company that sells to antique auto suppliers. Among the specialty products Mosser makes are glass insulators once used on utility and telephone poles. 

Mosser Glass Company seems to have found a niche in the glass industry that has allowed them to prosper while other glass companies have faltered. By making specialty glass for the antique restoration industry, glass for their own retail sales, and glass to other customers' specifications, Mosser Glass Company keeps the tradition of fine,hand-blown glass alive in the Ohio Valley.

As the two pictures above suggest, our next stop was Pittsburgh, PA and and a few hours to explore Station Square. The opportunity to view a major part of the Ohio River watershed drew some of us to ride the Incline to the overlook. 

      

We had dinner at a local restaurant where the food was excellent and the people very friendly. The establishment had been there for many years and the customers were long-time patrons. It was back to the hotel for an early evening and preparations for the last two days of our journey.   

Homer Laughlin China Co.- A Different Corporation

The third day of our trip began with a foray to Newell, WV and to The Homer Laughlin China Company, the creators of Fiesta brand dinnerware. This company was begun in 1871 by Homer and Shakespeare Laughlin with $5,000 of seed money from the East Liverpool city council to produce white dinnerware in that city.

Shakespeare Laughlin left the enterprise in 1877 and it continued to prosper under Homer Laughlin producing dinnerware and ceramic toilets.

 In 1897 the business was sold to a Laughlin Company manager named William E. Wells and a financier named Louis I. Aaron. The company continued to do well because of strong retail sales and because a cereal company put Laughton Co. bowls in boxes of oats. In 1902, in need of expansion, the company moved to Newell, WV across the Ohio River.

Newell, WV was a tiny, agricultural village prior to the arrival of the Homer Laughlin China Company. The company laid out the town, built the water treatment plant, and built the infrastructure that comprises a city. As Newell's largest citizen, the Laughlin Company acknowledged its position in the town, and that is reflected in its mission statement. The number one priority in its mission statement is to provide jobs in the Ohio Valley. Not surprising, this company is a family business with second and third generation people involved as workers, managers, and owners.

The second priority in the mission statement is to produce the finest quality product possible. Their success in fulfilling this priority is reflected by the sustained popularity of Fiesta Dinnerware. The Laughlin Company is also very successful in producing dinnerware for the restaurant industry and for the U.S. Armed Forces.

 
In the 1980's, the company moved to become more environmentally conscious when it produced lead-free glazes and a lead-free vitrified china. While other corporations state that profit is their number one priority, The Homer Laughlin China Company demonstrates that business success can best be achieved when social responsibility accompanies business acumen.

Questions to Research 

• Why do most people assume that being environmentally responsible means a reduced level of profit?
• Why have so many glass and pottery companies located in the Ohio Valley?
• Why have so many glass and pottery companies gone out of business in West Virginia?
• How might glass companies resume production and make glass a thriving industry in West Virginia again?