# What the hell is this ?



## TxBottleDigger (Aug 14, 2021)

I have found these humongous stoneware,  pieces in two creeks that are nearly 20 miles from each other. I finally took one after a unsuccessful day. It is salt glazed, would have had a diameter of around 3 ft., and weighs about 100 lbs. Anyone know what this is ?


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## willong (Aug 14, 2021)

I'm thinking terracotta sewer tile or culvert. Or perhaps piece of an industrial-scale vat for some process such as pickling or hide tanning.


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## Wadersmith (Aug 14, 2021)

Its a coke bottle. Nah but here's my shot I say its some sort of pot or part of a pillar. Other than those guesses I'm clueless


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## TxBottleDigger (Aug 14, 2021)

willong said:


> I'm thinking terracotta sewer tile or culvert. Or perhaps piece of an industrial-scale vat for some process such as pickling or hide tanning.


Yeah, it has to be a pipe, here is a advertisement from 1950, although, this one is 100+ years old, since it is salt glazed. 


It might haver had something to do with the drainage ditch (which is still in use after 100+ years)  that went through the south side of town, which, dumped into a real creek, where this was found. 
Another object for donation to the county museum eventually.


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## willong (Aug 14, 2021)

TxBottleDigger said:


> Yeah, it has to be a pipe, here is a advertisement from 1950, although, this one is 100+ years old, since it is salt glazed.
> ​


Pipe was my first thought. It is difficult to tell contours of a broken piece in a two-dimensional photo, but it looked to me like there might be a bit of reduction in the diameter near the end with the three score lines. On pipe, the reduced end slips into a joining section's larger end. The scored lines facilitate better adhesion of the bonding agent--usually mortar when the pipe is terracotta. Notice that the pipe in the advertisement also has score lines.


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## nhpharm (Aug 14, 2021)

Definitely a pipe.  I dig pieces a lot in Galveston.  There was a pottery in San Antonio that churned this stuff out.  The rings are for the mortar that connected the joints together...each piece had one straight end with the rings and one bell end and the bell would fit over the straight end of the next joint and would be mortared in place.  Sometimes they actually have quite nice glaze.


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## greenbay1108 (Aug 18, 2021)

most old tiles were made like the small ones from 3 inches up a lot of dug wells had larger ones in them


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## Fruitjar (Aug 18, 2021)

Sewer tile


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