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Laclede-Christy Clay Products Company, Warm Springs plant
Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, Warm Springs plant

History


In 1948, Laclede-Christy Clay Products Company of St. Louis, Missouri, built a refractory brick plant next to the Western Pacific railroad on Warms Springs Blvd. and Starlite Way, in Warm Spring (Fremont), Alameda County, California. Laclede-Christy was a well established refractories company, which started in 1844 as one of the earliest manufacturers of fire brick in the United States, with their first plant in St. Louis Missouri. This company is also known for pioneering the first dry pressed fire brick dating back to the 1860s. The plant began operations in Warm Springs on December 1, 1948. The company office was located at 391 Sutter St. in San Francisco. The officers were J. A. Kayser, manager, and W. J. Eames, plant superintendent.

The Warm Springs plant consisted of an office, warehouse, and one down-draft kiln, 15 by 26 feet in size. This plant manufactured refractory tank blocks used for lining glass-making furnaces. These blocks were designed for use in all locations in contact with molten glass, and were sold under the trade name "FLUXITE". Unfortunately, I was not able to find an example of this product to include here. This plant also made refractory fire brick which were branded LACLEDE/CAL. Other brick bats found at the plant site included LACLEDE/SPALLAC and other unidentified brands, which were probably shipped from Missouri.

The company used carefully selected Missouri bond clays, which were weathered, blended, and treated, to obtain a mix having the desired purity, plasticity, and strength. The mix was alternately pugged and aged to secure uniformity, and the blocks were manufactured by a de-airing process. The blocks were carefully dried and their moisture content constantly checked before burning. Specially developed machines were used for kiln loading. The blocks were burned in a gas-fired down-draft kiln. A very high peak-temperature was maintained over a considerable period of time to insure soaking heat and uniformity of burn. The changes in temperature were carefully controlled at all points in the burning cycle. The complete burning cycle required about 30 days and production capacity ran about 2,000 pounds of fired-product. After burning, the blocks were machine ground to size, 12 by 24 by 36 inches, for speed and accuracy in laying with resultant low cost of installation. From the sample of fire brick found on site, the dry pressed method was used to make standard fire brick at this plant.

In 1951, Harbison-Walker Refractories Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was interested in purchasing the Warm Springs plant from Laclede-Christy. Harbison-Walker was another well-established refractories company, which started in 1866 as the Star Fire Brick Works at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1925, Harbison-Walker established an office in the Hobart Building in San Francisco, and operated the brick plant of the Ione Fire Brick Company. By 1953, Harbison-Walker had purchased the Warm Springs plant, most likely to supplement the output of fire brick from its Ione plant in Amador County. Little is known about Harbison-Walker's operation at Warm Springs. But it is likely that any one of the brand names of WESTERN, WESTERN T, AMADOR, or ZENITH fire brick was manufactured at the Warm Springs plant. In 1960, Lincoln A. McGill was the district sales manager in the San Francisco office. The plant probably closed in 1969, when Harbison-Walker closed its San Francisco office. The plant site today is part of the Warm Spring business technology park.

Laclede Brick


View of the face of the Laclede fire brick.


LACLEDE fire brick is buff and uniform in color. It contains a grog of subangular milk white quartz up to 1/8 inch across and about 40 percent by volume. Brown or rusty round iron spots, up to 1/4 inch across, forms about 10 percent of the volume. Some of the larger iron spots are centered with a blister hole. The brick has a smooth surface and a granular texture. The edges are straight but the edges and corners are chipped or rounded from wear. The brick spalls easily. On one of the faces is imprinted the company name on two lines as recessed block letters. The top line is LACLEDE, which spans a length of 5 inches and is 11/16 inch high. The second line is CAL, which spans a length of 1 7/8 inches and is 11/16 inch high. This brick was manufactured from 1948 to 1953 at the Warm Springs plant by Laclede-Christy Clay Products Company. Dry pressed process. Length 9, width 4 3/8, height 2 1/2.

Source

American Ceramics Society Bulletin, v. 30, no. 12, 1951, p. 23.

Brick and Clay Record, v. 66, no. 13, 1925, p. 996.

Davis, F.F., 1950, "Mines and Mineral Resources of Alameda County, California": California State Mining Bureau, v. 46, no. 2, p. 294.

Harbison-Walker Refractories Company. Modern Refractory Practice. Cleveland: The William Feather Company, 1961.

Laclede-Christy Clay Products Company. Fireclay Refractories. St. Louis, MO, 1947.

San Francisco City Directories, 1925-1969.

Copyright © 2007 Dan Mosier

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