Misplaced Pages

#215784

35-724: The Piedmont Charcoal Kilns in Piedmont , Wyoming , are a remnant of a once-extensive charcoal-making industry in southwestern Wyoming . The kilns were built by Moses Byrne around 1869 near the Piedmont Station along the Union Pacific Railroad . The three surviving beehive-shaped kilns were built of local sandstone about 30 feet (9.1 m) in circumference and about 30 feet (9.1 m) high, with 24-inch-thick (61 cm) walls. A granite marker reads: Charcoal Kilns were built by Moses Byrne, 1869, to supply

70-471: A wood and water station was needed, and it was found that a spot approximately five miles west of the Muddy River station was ideal, being situated in the direct line of the track. Moses Byrne was asked to run the station. It was thought at first that they would call it Byrne, but it was later decided that the name might be confusing, since there was a station called Bryan west of Green River. Piedmont,

105-401: A controlled inner temperature and atmosphere. A continuous kiln , sometimes called a tunnel kiln , is long with only the central portion directly heated. From the cool entrance, ware is slowly moved through the kiln, and its temperature is increased steadily as it approaches the central, hottest part of the kiln. As it continues through the kiln, the temperature is reduced until the ware exits

140-540: A kiln. The final characteristics are determined by the composition and preparation of the clay body and the temperature at which it is fired. After a first firing, glazes may be used and the ware is fired a second time to fuse the glaze into the body. A third firing at a lower temperature may be required to fix overglaze decoration. Modern kilns often have sophisticated electronic control systems, although pyrometric devices are often also used. Clay consists of fine-grained particles that are relatively weak and porous. Clay

175-462: A mercantile establishment, and the town boasted 4 saloons. The logging industry, as a commercial venture, became well established in Piedmont as well. Moses Byrne constructed charcoal kilns in Piedmont during 1877. 5 in total were built, at a cost of $ 1,500. Quaking aspen and pine logs were hauled by ox teams to the kilns where they were burned into charcoal. The Union Pacific Railroad Company used

210-485: A new line that bypassed the town. Piedmont is located at 41°13'4.04" North, 110°37'40.02" West (41.21779, -110.62778). Many sources will provide other coordinates for this town, but they usually point to Fort Bridger , which is the nearest city. Piedmont, located southeast of Evanston , was settled circa 1867 to provide railroad ties for the Union Pacific Railroad . Moses Byrne built several kilns here for producing charcoal , and Charles Guild established one of

245-450: A schedule. After the firing is completed, both the kiln and the ware are cooled. The ware is removed, the kiln is cleaned and the next cycle begins. Kilns in this type include: Kiln technology is very old. Kilns developed from a simple earthen trench filled with pots and fuel pit firing , to modern methods. One improvement was to build a firing chamber around pots with baffles and a stoking hole. This conserved heat. A chimney stack improved

280-438: A typical tent camp for the railroad, probably at this time knew its greatest population; yet there is evidence of only approximately twenty homes. The tent town served as a base camp for the graders who were constructing a roadbed up the steep side of the mountain to the summit called Aspen Station. The route for the railroad had many sharp curves, including a full horseshoe bend. By 1868, the railroad crew arrived to lay track on

315-551: Is a ghost town . The Piedmont Charcoal Kilns were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. They are managed by the state of Wyoming as Piedmont Charcoal Kilns State Historic Site . Piedmont, Wyoming Piedmont is a ghost town located in Unita County , Wyoming , United States. It was once a thriving small railroad and timber town, but started to decline when Union Pacific opened

350-494: Is combined with other minerals to create a workable clay body. The firing process includes sintering . This heats the clay until the particles partially melt and flow together, creating a strong, single mass, composed of a glassy phase interspersed with pores and crystalline material. Through firing, the pores are reduced in size, causing the material to shrink slightly. In the broadest terms, there are two types of kilns: intermittent and continuous, both being an insulated box with

385-444: Is often provided early in the schedule to supplement the dehumidifier. Solar kilns are conventional kilns, typically built by hobbyists to keep initial investment costs low. Heat is provided via solar radiation, while internal air circulation is typically passive. Vacuum and radio frequency kilns reduce the air pressure to attempt to speed up the drying process. A variety of these vacuum technologies exist, varying primarily in

SECTION 10

#1732797535216

420-416: Is removed by a system of vents, the specific layout of which are usually particular to a given manufacturer. In general, cool dry air is introduced at one end of the kiln while warm moist air is expelled at the other. Hardwood conventional kilns also require the introduction of humidity via either steam spray or cold water misting systems to keep the relative humidity inside the kiln from dropping too low during

455-413: The dragon kiln of hilly southern China , usually fuelled by wood, long and thin and running up a slope, and the horseshoe-shaped mantou kiln of the north Chinese plains, smaller and more compact. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to 1300 °C or more needed for porcelain . In the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln or zhenyao was developed at Jingdezhen and mainly used there. This

490-537: The "n" silent, as is referenced in Webster's Dictionary of 1828 and in English Words as Spoken and Written for Upper Grades by James A. Bowen 1900: "The digraph ln, n silent, occurs in kiln. A fall down the kiln can kill you." Bowen was noting that "kill" and "kiln" are homophones . Pit fired pottery was produced for thousands of years before the earliest known kiln, which dates to around 6000 BCE , and

525-600: The Utah towns of Ogden and Slaterville. Most historical sources that reference both 'Mrs. Byrne' and Piedmont are taken to be referring to Catherine Cardon. Catherine Cardon Byrne and Marie Madelaine Cardon Guild were sisters. The Guild family joined the Byrne family in 1866 at the Muddy River Station in southwest Wyoming, having traveled from Salt Lake City. As the transcontinental railroad moved into western Wyoming,

560-478: The air flow or draw of the kiln, thus burning the fuel more completely. Chinese kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery , and until recent centuries was the most advanced in the world. The Chinese developed kilns capable of firing at around 1,000 °C before 2000 BCE . These were updraft kilns, often built below ground. Two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. These are

595-548: The air in the chamber is then heated and finally a vacuum is pulled as the charge cools. SSV run at partial-atmospheres, typically around 1/3 of full atmospheric pressure, in a hybrid of vacuum and conventional kiln technology (SSV kilns are significantly more popular in Europe where the locally harvested wood is easier to dry than the North American woods.) RF/V (radio frequency + vacuum) kilns use microwave radiation to heat

630-561: The cemeteries. Kilns According to the Oxford English Dictionary , kiln was derived from the words cyline, cylene, cyln(e) in Old English , in turn derived from Latin culina ("kitchen"). In Middle English , the word is attested as kulne, kyllne, kilne, kiln, kylle, kyll, kil, kill, keele, kiele. In Greek the word καίειν, kaiein , means 'to burn'. The word "kiln" was originally pronounced "kil" with

665-553: The charcoal as fuel for the passenger cars. The three surviving Piedmont Charcoal Kilns were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. About 1910, the Union Pacific Railroad began digging the Aspen tunnel through Aspen mountain. The completion of the tunnel—approximately one and one-half miles long—resulted in the elimination of the steep, winding grade from Piedmont to Aspen Station. The railroad

700-437: The differential impact of the presence of drying equipment in a specific plant. Every piece of equipment from the green trimmer to the infeed system at the planer mill is part of the "drying system". The true costs of the drying system can only be determined when comparing the total plant costs and risks with and without drying. Kiln dried firewood was pioneered during the 1980s, and was later adopted extensively in Europe due to

735-581: The drying cycle. Fan directions are typically reversed periodically to ensure even drying of larger kiln charges. Most softwood kilns operate below 115 °C (239 °F) temperature. Hardwood kiln drying schedules typically keep the dry bulb temperature below 80 °C (176 °F). Difficult-to-dry species might not exceed 60 °C (140 °F). Dehumidification kilns are similar to other kilns in basic construction and drying times are usually comparable. Heat comes primarily from an integral dehumidification unit that also removes humidity. Auxiliary heat

SECTION 20

#1732797535216

770-429: The economic and practical benefits of selling wood with a lower moisture content (with optimal moisture levels of under 20% being much easier to achieve). The total (harmful) air emissions produced by wood kilns, including their heat source, can be significant. Typically, the higher the temperature at which the kiln operates, the larger the quantity of emissions that are produced (per mass unit of water removed). This

805-519: The firing. A user may choose to control the rate of temperature climb or ramp , hold or soak the temperature at any given point, or control the rate of cooling. Both electric and gas kilns are common for smaller scale production in industry and craft, handmade and sculptural work. Modern kilns include: Green wood coming straight from the felled tree has far too high a moisture content to be commercially useful and will rot, warp and split. Both hardwoods and softwood must be left to dry out until

840-770: The first ranches in the Territory. Both Byrne and Guild were Mormon pioneers. Originally, the area was named " Byrne ," but due to confusion with Bryan Station was renamed Piedmont. Both Byrne's wives, Anne Beus and Catherine Cardon, and Guild's wife, Marie Madeleine Cardon, were from small towns in the Torino Province, part of the Piedmont Region of northern Italy . Moses' wife Anne Beus lived in Ogden, Utah , and his other wife Catherine Cardon eventually ended up living in Piedmont, after first having spent time in

875-431: The kiln charge, and typically have the highest operating cost due to the heat of vaporization being provided by electricity rather than local fossil fuel or waste wood sources. The economics of different wood drying technologies are based on the total energy, capital, insurance/risk, environmental impacts, labor, maintenance, and product degradation costs. These costs, which can be a significant part of plant costs, involve

910-415: The kiln nearly at room temperature. A continuous kiln is energy-efficient, because heat given off during cooling is recycled to pre-heat the incoming ware. In some designs, the ware is left in one place, while the heating zone moves across it. Kilns in this type include: In the intermittent kiln , the ware is placed inside the kiln, the kiln is closed, and the internal temperature is increased according to

945-517: The kiln. Most softwood kilns are track types in which the timber is loaded on kiln/track cars for loading the kiln. Modern high-temperature, high-air-velocity conventional kilns can typically dry 1-inch-thick (25 mm) green wood in 10 hours down to a moisture content of 18%. However, 1-inch-thick green red oak requires about 28 days to dry down to a moisture content of 8%. Heat is typically introduced via steam running through fin/tube heat exchangers controlled by on/off pneumatic valves. Humidity

980-399: The method heat is introduced into the wood charge. Hot water platten vacuum kilns use aluminum heating plates with the water circulating within as the heat source, and typically operate at significantly reduced absolute pressure. Discontinuous and SSV (super-heated steam) use atmosphere pressure to introduce heat into the kiln charge. The entire kiln charge comes up to full atmospheric pressure,

1015-434: The moisture content is between 18% and 8%. This can be a long process unless accelerated by use of a kiln. A variety of kiln technologies exist today: conventional, dehumidification, solar, vacuum and radio frequency. Conventional wood dry kilns are either package-type (side-loader) or track-type (tram) construction. Most hardwood lumber kilns are side-loader kilns in which fork trucks are used to load lumber packages into

1050-520: The pioneer smelters in the Utah Valley. Moses Byrne settled in Piedmont about 1867. A builder, Byrne had built a number of Pony Express stations and stables. Byrne built five kilns at Piedmont in 1869. Most of Byrne's charcoal was shipped to the area around Salt Lake City (the Utah Valley) for use in small smelters and blacksmith shops. Two kilns have since been destroyed. Piedmont itself

1085-421: The prepared roadbed. It was soon realized that helper engines would be needed on the 8 mile grade. Wells that were dug provided plentiful water. Sidings, an engine shed, and a water tank were constructed, and Piedmont became a wood and water refueling station for helper engines. Men were needed to run the helper engines, so more families moved in. There were also homesteaders arriving at that time. The Guilds opened

Piedmont Charcoal Kilns State Historic Site - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-467: The side of a slope, such that a fire could be lit at the bottom and the heat would rise up into the kiln. Traditional kilns include: With the industrial age , kilns were designed to use electricity and more refined fuels, including natural gas and propane . Many large industrial pottery kilns use natural gas, as it is generally clean, efficient and easy to control. Modern kilns can be fitted with computerized controls allowing for fine adjustments during

1155-498: Was found at the Yarim Tepe site in modern Iraq . Neolithic kilns were able to produce temperatures greater than 900 °C (1652 °F). Uses include: Kilns are an essential part of the manufacture of almost all types of ceramics . Ceramics require high temperatures so chemical and physical reactions will occur to permanently alter the unfired body. In the case of pottery, clay materials are shaped, dried and then fired in

1190-427: Was rerouted from LeRoy to the tunnel, missing Piedmont by several miles. Piedmont was stranded, and its demise began. In 1940, lack of business forced the closing of the old Guild Mercantile Store. Since then, most of the buildings have been hauled away. All that remains are three or four tumbledown remnants of homes, some foundations, the coal dump where the engine shed once stood, the charcoal kilns of Moses Byrne, and

1225-537: Was something of a compromise between the other types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions. Both Ancient Roman pottery and medieval Chinese pottery could be fired in industrial quantities, with tens of thousands of pieces in a single firing. Early examples of simpler kilns found in Britain include those that made roof-tiles during the Roman occupation. These kilns were built up

#215784