Re Historic Kilns I am months behind in my e-mail so I have only just found the messages on historic kilns. I have a number of works by A.B. Searle who wrote a large nimber of technical works on brick and ceramic manufacturing notably "Modern Brickmaking" and the "Clay Workers Handbook" which I have, as well as "Kilns and Kiln Making" which seems to be fairly rare. All Searle's works give illustrations of various kilns and machinery. Searle is British and so relates to the British clayworking scene. However Kiln technology was fairly standard in both the UK and USA, although the dates and type of technology used vary, so he could help with identifying the fire box. Having inspected a number of kilns I would be happy to give advice on the fire box issue if Kris (or anyone else) contacts me either via e-mail or fax on 61 2 9884441. I am constantly looking for material on brickmaking and I would love to know when the frist Hoffman kiln was built in the USA. Iain Stuart PHA. University of Sydney [log in to unmask]