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squeeze the excess moisture out, and then mold the remaining plastic
substance into a finger-size cone. Fixing this to a clay holder, he then
set it in the kiln's cool spot prior to burning. When that spot reached
the appropriate temperature, the cone would wilt meaning that the
glaze on his ware had run sufficiently: "It's the most accurate thing
that I can get to burn a kiln of pott'ry up there. I know my glazing,
and when that cone up there melts down slick, then I know my pott'ry
is glazed." If a portion of the ware in the kiln carried a different glaze,
additional cones matching those finishes were added: "Then I just
keep firing until diat last cone melts down."
When it was finally determined that everything had burned
sufficiendy, father and son stopped adding fuel and closed off all of the
draft holes. This would keep cold air from getting inside the kiln and
doing "mischief with the ware. They then retired for the second night.
Early the next morning, Cheever was up and poking his flashlight
in a peep hole to get a glimpse of the results. Because the kiln was still
much too hot for unloading, he shordy reclosed the opening.
Several days later, Cheever and Lanier unloaded the kiln: "Sometimes
we can't hardly wait till it cools off to take a pole and start fishing
a few pieces out so mat we can look at it —I reckon it's just anxiety."
As with loading, the job benefited from several pairs of hands. After
boards had been placed across the firebox, the first man entered the
low aperture and began to hand die ware out to his assistants (fig. 36).
It was still rather warm inside, provoking Lanier to comment, "It's a
litde too warm. I think that's the reason diat all of us is bald-headed, it
burnt the hair off our heads." When unloading was finished, the man
inside the furnace eventually reappeared covered with ashes and soot.
Once out of the kiln, the vessels were placed on the ground to cool,
a process that produced an odd tinkling sound diat was to continue for
several hours. In contrast to the older potters who often blew into or
"thumped" their ware on the ground, listening for a telltale sound that
would indicate a fissure, Lanier contented himself with a visual
inspection: "Course some of it's a little better than other—the glaze is
not what it ought to be on some of them —but most of it is all right."
On the average, the Meaderses could anticipate that the larger share
of their ware —usually ninety percent or better—would come out as
expected. Because of the vagaries of the raw materials, however, they
could never be absolutely certain of success. Once, for example, a
load of churns was lost because, in the final analysis, the vessels' walls
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