The clay and shale are dumped into a bin and fed by Robert Norris into a machine where it is crushed, through screens, to a fine powder. Buckets escalators carry it to be screened again, dumped into a conveyor and fed into the "pug mill". The machinery was idle when we visited, but the men obligingly started the mill so we could see a tile in the making.

In the pug mill, which was run by Herschel Kelly, water is added to the fine dust. Electric knives cut and mix the two into a thick mud. This mixture is forced through the dye and comes out in a long continuous tile. An electic cutting wheel, with slender wires like piano strings, cuts the tile into foot lengths. The machine cuts thirty tiles per minute.