A Treatise on the Origin, Progressive Improvement and Present State of the Manufacture of Porcelain and Glass |
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acid alkali already annealing antimony appearance applied artist baking basaltic borax brought calcined China clay cobalt colcothar color composed composition compound considerable contained copper crown glass crucible degree of heat described earth earthenware effect employed enamel equal fire flint glass fluid flux furnace fused fusible fusion glass-house glaze gold grinding gypsum imparted inches ingredients kao-lin kiln kind Klaproth labor lime litharge manganese manner manufacture mass materials means melted glass ment metallic oxides minium mixed mixture mould nitre occasion opaque operation ornaments oven oxide of iron oxide of lead painting perfect perfectly pieces placed plate glass polishing porcelain portion potash potteries pounds powder preparation produced proportion purpose quantity rendered requisite sand seggars silex silica soda specific gravity specimens Staffordshire substance sufficiently surface temperature thickness tion transparent tube varnish vessels vitrified ware weight wherein whole workman
Popular passages
Page 94 - Yet by some such fortuitous liquefaction was mankind taught to procure a body at once in a high degree solid and transparent, which might admit the light of the sun, and exclude the violence of the wind ; which might extend the sight of the philosopher to new ranges of existence, and charm him at one time with the unbounded extent of the material creation, and at another with the endless subordination of animal life; and, what is yet of more importance, might supply the decays of nature, and succour...
Page 94 - Who, when he saw the first sand or ashes, by a casual intenseness of heat, melted into a metalline form, rugged with excrescences, and clouded with impurities, would have imagined, that in this shapeless lump lay concealed so many conveniencies of life, as would in time constitute a great part of the happiness of the world...
Page 94 - ... of nature, and succour old age with subsidiary sight. Thus was the first artificer in glass employed, though without his own knowledge or expectation. He was facilitating and prolonging the enjoyment of light, enlarging the avenues of science, and conferring the highest and most lasting pleasures ; he was enabling the student to contemplate nature, and the beauty to behold herself.
Page 93 - IMPORTANCE OF THE MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND. GLASS MADE A SOURCE OF REVENUE. MANY circumstances contribute to render glass one of the most curious and interesting of manufactured substances. Although perfectly transparent itself, not one of the materials of which it is made partakes of that quality. Exceedingly brittle while cold, it becomes, by the application of heat, so remarkably flexible and tenacious as to be convertible into every form that fancy may dictate or convenience suggest. Its great...
Page 152 - This is the brown red oxide of iron, which remains in the retorts after the distillation of the acid from sulphate of iron. The instrument used in polishing is a piece of wood covered with many folds of woollen cloth...
Page 83 - ... of the Chinese process of manufacturing a tea-cup : — " It may give some idea of the number of hands employed in the perfecting of every piece of porcelain, to state what D'Entrecolles has related to occur with the commonest description of tea-cup. The potter has the management of the wheel ; and under his hands the cup assumes its form, height, and diameter. It may be well imagined that this workman does not bestow much labour upon his task, when we are told, that for fashioning...
Page 209 - ... in a printing-house ; and such is their accuracy in imitating the finest strokes of the pencil, that the only apparent difference betwixt the original painting and such a copy is, that the latter has a much finer lustre, and the colours are more vivid." An accident occurred many years ago in the plateglass works at St. Gobain, which seemed to offer the means of obtaining a bright red colour for glass by the employment of copper, at a much less expense than has hitherto attended the production...
Page 103 - ... to take up the stone in order to recover the glass. He then found it in the form of a plate, such as could not be produced by the ordinary process of blowing. The man's attention being roused by this fact, he was unable to sleep ; and conceiving at once the superiority of this method for forming mirrors, he immediately commenced experimenting ; and before the day appeared had proved the practicability of the improvement which the purest chance had thus placed within the sphere of his observation.
Page 28 - This was also a white porcelainous biscuit, of exquisite delicacy and beauty, having in general all the properties of the basaltes, with this in addition, — that it would receive through its whole substance, from the admixture of metallic oxides, the same colours as those oxides communicate to glass or enamel in fusion. This peculiar property, which it shares with no other porcelain or earthenware body of either ancient or modern composition, renders it applicable in a very pleasing manner to the...
Page 102 - The metal ran under one of the large flag stones wherewith the place was paved, which obliged the workman to take up the stone in order to recover the glass. He then found it in the form of a plate, such as could not be produced by the ordinary process of blowing. The man's attention being roused by this fact, he was unable to sleep...