Carl Steen wrote:
Are you referring to pug mills perhaps?

That's it!  Brain freeze is my excuse.  They (at least some of them) look
and function just like some arastras I've seen ... a pair of large broad
wheels spinning around a central axis, hopper on top in some cases.  If I
am not mistaken modern pug mills work more like a meat grinder or extruder
and are primarily used to soften and get the bubbles out of pre-mixed clay.

I've seen some arastras that had the wheels and some that had a stone that
was dragged - is it the use in ore grinding or clay processing that makes
it a pug mill (English term) vs an arastra which is an ore-grinding machine
(Spanish term)?

Here's a report from the web referencing pug mills in the initial
processing of clay straight from the clay pit (with an illustration in
which a horse-driven pug mill can be seen):
http://www.crai-ky.com/reports/brick-clamp.htm
http://www.crai-ky.com/reports/brick-figure1.jpg

        Dan W.


At 11:22 AM 9/17/00 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 9/17/2000 10:57:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><< We've heard all about arastras used to break ore-bearing rocks, but what
> about the clay and soil grinding machines that look just like arastras?  I
> don;t recall what they were called, bu I've seen them in various sizes from
> portable to horse powered with 5 foot stones used in preparing materials
> for brick, adobe, and pottery.  Brick bats and pottery wasters could also
> be ground in them and mixed with the clay.
>
>         Dan W. >>
>
>Are you referring to pug mills perhaps?
>
>Carl Steen
>