Well, let me tell ya ’bout this here refractory clay stuff. I ain’t no fancy scientist or nothin’, but I know a thing or two about things that gotta hold up to heat. You see, this clay is special. It ain’t like the dirt in your backyard, no sirree.
This here clay… it’s tough. Real tough. It can take a whole lotta heat, like, way more than your oven at home. We’re talkin’ thousands of degrees! Hot enough to melt most stuff, but not this clay. That’s why they call it “refractory,” I guess. Fancy word, but it just means it don’t melt easy.
- It’s used in all sorts of things, like them big ol’ furnaces they use to make steel.
- And them kilns where they bake pottery and bricks? Yep, refractory clay in there too.
- Even them fancy fireplaces some folks got, they probably got some of this in ’em.
Now, where do you get this magical clay? Well, there’s companies that dig it outta the ground. Big companies, with big machines. I heard tell of some places, like, uh… Cedar Heights, they got good clay there. And Piedmont somethin’-or-other, they got the minerals to go with it. Sounds fancy, but it’s just dirt, really, just special dirt.
Then there’s them folks down in South America, DGC somethin’ somethin’. They sell this clay too. Lots of places sell it, seems like everybody needs it. You got McNeil, they sell all kinds of stuff for factories, and this clay is part of it. And Plibrico, they not only sell it, but they’ll even help you put it in, build stuff with it. Handy, if you ain’t got the know-how yourself.
If you need this stuff in a hurry, some places got it stocked up. You can just call ’em up and they’ll send it right over. Like, that 800 number, they’ll get you fixed up. Quick as a wink. ‘Course, I ain’t never had to call ’em myself. I just use the dirt in my garden for my little flower pots.
There’s a whole bunch of big companies makin’ and sellin’ this clay. China, they make a whole lot of everything, this clay included. They sell it cheap too, wholesale they call it. You can even get your name printed on it, if you want. Fancy stuff, I tell ya.
But you can even find it on that there eBay, if you believe it. Folks sellin’ everything on there these days. Clothes, cars, even this here refractory clay. It’s like a big ol’ flea market, but on the computer. Don’t ask me how it works, I ain’t got no head for that computer stuff.
Now, the most common kind of this clay is called firebrick clay. That’s what they use to make them firebricks, see? Them bricks gotta stand up to a whole lotta heat, so they gotta be made of somethin’ special. And that special somethin’ is this here firebrick clay. It can take more heat than you can shake a stick at, over 2900 degrees! That’s hotter than a summer day in Texas, I tell ya.
They use these firebricks to line them furnaces, so they don’t melt. And they make pots and stuff outta it too, for meltin’ metal and glass. Anything that gets real hot, they use this clay. Heaters, them things that make hydrogen and ammonia, even them big boilers that make electricity… all gotta have this tough clay in ’em somewhere.
So, that’s the long and short of it. Refractory clay. It’s tough stuff, used for hot stuff. Not somethin’ you see every day, maybe, but it’s important. Keeps things runnin’, keeps things from meltin’. And that’s about all I know about it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go water my petunias.
