522 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



mass, diluted with water to the consistency of paste. The 

 composition of the latter must be similar in nature to that 

 of the porcelain, and its degree of contraction must be the 

 same, so that the subsequent heating does not cause them, to 

 separate. The oxides employed as pigments must be so re- 

 fractory as to resist the temperature of the porcelain oven, 

 and not be converted in it into colorless silicates, or a dead 

 coloring. The selection of pigments is therefore very limit- 

 ed. The colored pate is laid on by the artist with a brush, 

 and he regulates the distribution by the drawing, and the 

 manner of laying it on by the number and thickness of the 

 coatings, according to the relation that the color of the mass 

 and its thickness must have to each other in the finished 

 article. The appearance of relief is produced partly by the 

 brush, and partly by a variation in the number of coatings, 

 and by the manner of laying them on, and may be still fur- 

 ther heightened by the employment of an instrument with 

 which a true relief is given. The article is subsequently 

 subjected to all the processes of undecorated porcelain. 

 While articles produced by this method, by the aid of 

 some of the best artists, have been greatly admired, and 

 although it may combine all the excellences necessary to 

 the production of works of art, they must necessarily be 

 very expensive, on account of the long and minute labor 

 required of the artist, and the risk to which the article is 

 subsequently subjected in the baking. 13 (7, JVov. 1, 1874, 

 1368. 



STARCHING LINEN. 



The following is recommended by a German journal : 

 Make a liquid paste with good fine wheat starch and cold 

 water, and then stir in boiling water until a stiff paste is 

 formed, and immediately add white wax, or stearin, say 

 about one ounce of wax to a pound of starch (the exact 

 proportions, however, in any case can only be determined 

 by experience). If it is desirable that the linen should be 

 very stiff, powdered gum-arabic may be added to the cold 

 water with which the starch is mixed. The strained starch 

 should be thoroughly rubbed into the articles after they have 

 been well wrung out, after which they should be placed be- 

 tween dry cloths and passed through the mangle, and then 



