Talk:Buell dryer

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I must admit I've never heard of a Buell dryer before. Certainly, multiple hearth furnaces have seen far more use as incinerators, calciners, and roasters than as dryers. I propose a new article called Multiple hearth furnace. I'm not proposing to get rid of Buell dryer just yet, becuase there's probably enough differences in the design of a multi-hearth dryer as opposed to a calciner to warrant separate articles.

A few more comments: it may be known to some as a Buell dryer, but certainly Buell were not the only ones to make such a unit??? One of the more general terms given in the article would be more appropriate. Theres also reference to Herreschoff kiln in this article. I don't like that either. Nichols-Herreschoff (later Nichols Engineering and Research) built multiple hearth furnaces. Some people do call them Herreschoff kilns or Herreschoff roasters, but it's better to stick with the generic name.

Any thoughts before I give a minor red-pen treatment? BSMet94 20:25, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect (though don't know enough to be in any way definitive) that the term Buell Dryer has become generic in the Cornish china clay industry - as for the china clay industry elsewhere I couldn't say. DuncanHill 23:02, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes the above is correct - they are also generically called "turbo shelf dryers" or just "turbo dryers". There were, to the best of my knowledge, about 12 (1 at Drinnick, 5 at Par, 1 at Treviscoe, 1 at Parkandillack, 2 at Rocks, 2 at Marsh Mills) installed throughout the whole industry in Devon and Cornwall. Buell dryers were developed, I believe, by the Cornish china clay industry in cooperation with Buell, using the multiple hearth "turbo dryer" principle but operating at a much lower temperature so as to dry the clay without changing it's chemical properties. The first Buell was installed in "Drinnick cooperage" around 1945, although I've no idea whether this was the one that was part of the Carloggas dryers... if not that means there were 13 Buells in total. 6 Buells were built in identical buildings on various sites, roughly around the same time, with the exact same equipment in them.

What I don't know is whether they were all made by Buell. I do know that ECLP & Co. Ltd. were the only company to install and operate them, and that they made a lot of their own equipment. So how accurate it is to call them all "Buell" dryers I don't know... the Cornish have a habit of persisting in the names they know, and it may be the case with this.

Just out of interest is Buell still in business manufacturing these things? ▫Bad▫harlick♠ 15:24, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Buell today

Buell is a division of a company called Fisher-Klosterman, see http://www.fkinc.com/fki/divisions/buell.asp for more info. DuncanHill 16:18, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

That's the cyclone people... not sure it's the same outfit that made multiple hearth dryers.BSMet94 03:42, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

It is - but they seem to just do the cyclones now. DuncanHill 11:20, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, it seems rather unusual that a Cornish kaolin company would order drying equipment from a US supplier. My understanding is that at that time (1940s) mechanical drying of kaolin was a relatively new idea and was mostly at the research stage. There is another company called Buell who specialise in crusher/screener equipment. ▫Bad▫harlick♠ 12:32, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Page Edits and Citations To Come

I've done some editing to make a few corrections, improvements, and also to remove the advertising from the Wyssmont corporation. Included is a photo I took of a Buell dryer, which I have released under creative commons. I've added a little background history to the dryer. The Buell played an important role in the development of the Cornish clay industry. Corrections include: the Buell was indirect heated, not direct. It was not similar to the Herreshoff kiln (only bears slight resemblance). It was not developed by English Clays Lovering Pochin, the technology already existed and was in use at other mines in the UK, ECLP merely adapted it to the clay industry. It's first use was in 1944, not 1945. I do have and will be adding some citations for all the information on the page, I just need to collate the information so it can be added. Over time my plan is to expand a series of articles on the Cornwall and Devon clay industry as the topic is quite extensive, covering more than 200 years of history, and involving what at the time was one of the largest corporations in the UK. ▫Bad▫harlick♠ 15:40, 23 August 2019 (UTC)