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Description

Around Dalatyr their were numerous clay beds. These had been rich and productive and had more than met the simple needs of local potters for millennia. When the Committee arrived, the clay pits soon were expanded to provide brick as well as supplying an increasing number of potters. As such, it seemed odd when in 14 IA the Committee began to import to the capital white clay from the foothills of the Greytooth Mountains. At least until they explained to a cadre of apprentice potters how to use the Kaolin, glaze it and make porcelain. It took them some time to get a hang of their craft and output was slow at first but within a few years they were turning out respectable work, both for the domestic market and export. It was not as fine as the products of the kilns of the Elves, Dwarves or Eastern Empires, but it was still better than the earthenwares and stonewares that the humans of Illvanicum could produce. By 22 IA Infrastructural Porcelain Factory (IPF) wares could be found in the dish drawers and display cabinets of Bureaucrats, Engineers and both foreign and domestic merchants. But the Committee had other purposes for this type of ceramic beyond consumer goods and accumulating capital. One that were less savory, but one that they considered far more important.

Inessa Kwolek dabbed her head with a rag. It was snowing outside, but the Kiln Hall was always at least warm. There were eight Kilns in the Keramigrad Fixtures Factory; not the overgrown bread oven affairs you'd find in villages but massive two-story walk in affairs with a massive set of steam driven bellows. Normally at least four of them would be in operation at any one time and when one of them was opened a wave of hot air would flow out. By her luck, two of them were cracked open within two minutes. Still she pushed through. If this was the height of summer, Hall and Kiln work miserable experience even with the fans going full tilt and the windows open. Now it was more annoying than anything.

KFF was divided into three main sections: Pre-Fire, the Kiln Hall and Packaging. Unfired greenware was molded, cleaned up and glaze coated in Pre-Fire before being fired in the Kilns and sent off to packaging. Her job was to move things from A to B and then from B to C on a small push-trolley. In front of each kiln was a pair of pallets, one for greenware coming in and the other for fired product coming out. Actually loading and unloading the kiln was not her job, there were special workers for that who could do that heavy lifting without breaking valuable product. Regardless of the Trolley operators hoped to join their ranks regardless since it meant an extra three credits every day.

She saw a couple finished bowls at Kiln-5 and so wheeled her cart over to collect them. These were the heaviest items, but you did not have to carry them more than a meter. Once two of them were onboard, she strapped them into place and moved them down into Packaging. Each of the two massive bowls would be lined up with the other components produced here and others made elsewhere, packed up in crates of straw and old newspapers. Soon the kit would most likely be on a riverboat heading north. Possibly a Paddlesteamer would carry the set to it's ultimate destination. Possibly it would make the rest of the journey by train after being loaded up at Fort Surebev. She went back to provide them with more, and continued on for the next four hours minus a couple of quick breathers.

Keramigrad was a factory town, built specifically to support KFF and it's workforce. KFF was sited in the Southwest because it was near the Foydoreg Kaolin Mines. It had opened up in early days of the Escort War and was operated at 25% capacity. Now it was working full tilt. Inessa's first experience with it's products happened on her first day at work at KFF a year ago when nature called. Up until that day, her notion of a privy was a shed in the garden or an earthen ware pot. Now she knew better. Flushing toilets were not unknown to the west, but outside of the more successful dwarfholds they were the domain of the rich. Detail however was determined to improve the general level of health of Infrastructure's populace, with KFF being the tip of his spear against filth.

Inessa agreed with all of that and took some pride in it, even so her biggest motivations for working at KFF was getting enough money to start a family on the right footing without having to deal with pigs that had not had an appointment with a butcher. She'd had to deal with her family's herd of the damned beasts for seventeen of her eighteen years, feeding them, mucking them out, dodging them, put up with their screams or when when they were in in a bitey mood and she was damn certain she was 100% done with their shit.

From the beginning

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Twenty Four
Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Twenty Six

Description

Around Dalatyr their were numerous clay beds. These had been rich and productive and had more than met the simple needs of local potters for millennia. When the Committee arrived, the clay pits soon were expanded to provide brick as well as supplying an increasing number of potters. As such, it seemed odd when in 14 IA the Committee began to import to the capital white clay from the foothills of the Greytooth Mountains. At least until they explained to a cadre of apprentice potters how to use the Kaolin, glaze it and make porcelain. It took them some time to get a hang of their craft and output was slow at first but within a few years they were turning out respectable work, both for the domestic market and export. It was not as fine as the products of the kilns of the Elves, Dwarves or Eastern Empires, but it was still better than the earthenwares and stonewares that the humans of Illvanicum could produce. By 22 IA Infrastructural Porcelain Factory (IPF) wares could be found in the dish drawers and display cabinets of Bureaucrats, Engineers and both foreign and domestic merchants. But the Committee had other purposes for this type of ceramic beyond consumer goods and accumulating capital. One that were less savory, but one that they considered far more important.

Inessa Kwolek dabbed her head with a rag. It was snowing outside, but the Kiln Hall was always at least warm. There were eight Kilns in the Keramigrad Fixtures Factory; not the overgrown bread oven affairs you'd find in villages but massive two-story walk in affairs with a massive set of steam driven bellows. Normally at least four of them would be in operation at any one time and when one of them was opened a wave of hot air would flow out. By her luck, two of them were cracked open within two minutes. Still she pushed through. If this was the height of summer, Hall and Kiln work miserable experience even with the fans going full tilt and the windows open. Now it was more annoying than anything.

KFF was divided into three main sections: Pre-Fire, the Kiln Hall and Packaging. Unfired greenware was molded, cleaned up and glaze coated in Pre-Fire before being fired in the Kilns and sent off to packaging. Her job was to move things from A to B and then from B to C on a small push-trolley. In front of each kiln was a pair of pallets, one for greenware coming in and the other for fired product coming out. Actually loading and unloading the kiln was not her job, there were special workers for that who could do that heavy lifting without breaking valuable product. Regardless of the Trolley operators hoped to join their ranks regardless since it meant an extra three credits every day.

She saw a couple finished bowls at Kiln-5 and so wheeled her cart over to collect them. These were the heaviest items, but you did not have to carry them more than a meter. Once two of them were onboard, she strapped them into place and moved them down into Packaging. Each of the two massive bowls would be lined up with the other components produced here and others made elsewhere, packed up in crates of straw and old newspapers. Soon the kit would most likely be on a riverboat heading north. Possibly a Paddlesteamer would carry the set to it's ultimate destination. Possibly it would make the rest of the journey by train after being loaded up at Fort Surebev. She went back to provide them with more, and continued on for the next four hours minus a couple of quick breathers.

Keramigrad was a factory town, built specifically to support KFF and it's workforce. KFF was sited in the Southwest because it was near the Foydoreg Kaolin Mines. It had opened up in early days of the Escort War and was operated at 25% capacity. Now it was working full tilt. Inessa's first experience with it's products happened on her first day at work at KFF a year ago when nature called. Up until that day, her notion of a privy was a shed in the garden or an earthen ware pot. Now she knew better. Flushing toilets were not unknown to the west, but outside of the more successful dwarfholds they were the domain of the rich. Detail however was determined to improve the general level of health of Infrastructure's populace, with KFF being the tip of his spear against filth.

Inessa agreed with all of that and took some pride in it, even so her biggest motivations for working at KFF was getting enough money to start a family on the right footing without having to deal with pigs that had not had an appointment with a butcher. She'd had to deal with her family's herd of the damned beasts for seventeen of her eighteen years, feeding them, mucking them out, dodging them, put up with their screams or when when they were in in a bitey mood and she was damn certain she was 100% done with their shit.

From the beginning

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Twenty Four
Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Twenty Six