7S1 



EARTHENWARE. 



EARTHENWARE. 



affix*! to a frame, with guide* to preserve the register ; each plate U 

 to be u**d only for on* colour, and each U to be impmwl on the 

 paper in turn. It U obvious that this method will only be available 

 far costly kind* of earthenware. Another uggetion u that nuulc by 

 Mr. Joubert, founded on the method of hardening cupper-plate* by 

 iinlimg or aeiermtiitg. Engraved copper-plate* can, at 1* well-known, 

 U- multiplied almoet without end by the electrotype process ; thereby 



) design to be available for an enurmou* number of printed 



impressions. Th** copper onto, however, are very soft, and yield 

 only a few hundred impression* before they exhibit signs of wear, 

 which an an eyesore to the engraver of high-class works. Hence, in 

 M. Gamier, of Paris, tried the efficacy of copper-plate* cvattd 

 tniJt iron or *ttl aflrr Ike ngrarittg, yet so exquisitely as not to injure 

 the flnonms of the linos. His experiments resulted in a patent taken 

 out in 1858 by 1L Jacquin. According to this patent, the engraved 

 copper-plate is immersed in a trough containing a solution of a salt of 

 Iron, and containing also a sheet of iron. When the copper and the 

 iron are placed in connection with the opposite poles of a galvanic 

 battery, a complex electro-chemical action ensues, and a film of pure 

 iron 1 deposited all over the engraved copper-plate, so wonderfully 

 thin and uniform as to leave the handiwork of the engraver uninjured. 

 A copper-plate so prepared hat, it is asserted, been made to yield nearly 

 as many impressions as another plate engraved on steel. When the 

 beauty of the impressions begins to fade, the acierating maybe repeated ; 

 and so a third, and atill greater number of times. The controversy to 

 which this invention has given rise among the engravers and printers 

 of high-class works of art, we need not touch upon here ; but it may 

 be well to quote some observations made by Mr. Joubert in 1859, con- 

 cerning the application of this principle to the printing of earthenware : 

 " Some yean ago, it was deemed desirable in potteries to supersede 

 the necessity of having a large number of copper-plates engraved with 

 the same design. Steel-plates were suggested ; but the engravers found 

 that they had to cut the lines so deep, in order to hold the Urge 

 amount of colouring matter necessary, that there was great difficulty 

 in using this hard metal. A further objection to the use of steel for 

 this purpose, was that the smoothness of the surface prevented 

 it from holding the oily description of colouring matter used. In 

 the ordinary mode of printing, the cleaning of the surface of the 

 plate is effected by the palm of the hand ; but for earthenware, the 

 plate is scraped with a spatula, and by that means the oily ink is apt 

 to be dragged out of the lines." As a remedy for this evil, some of the 

 potters have begun to use acierated copper-plates. Some persons have 

 suggested that it would be better to acierate the turf ace of the plate 

 only, leaving the engraved lines untouched on the ground that copper 

 receives the oily ink better than steel ; but to this it has been replied, 

 that a superior plan would be, to devise a new kind of colouring vehicle 

 which is quite within the range of inventive art. One more novel 

 suggestion is all that we con moke room for : Mr. R. Smith of Black- 

 ford has suggested that earthenware might receive a great variety of 

 colours without the employment of engraved plates at all, by employing 

 galvanic agency. Supposing a piece of earthenware to be about to 

 receive a device in purple, he would place it for a few seconds in 

 water ; dip it into a solution of muriate of tin ; connect the interior of 

 the Teasel with the negative pole of a galvanic battery by means of a 

 strip of lead ; connect a chain to the positive pole with a bit of gold 

 wire at the end ; and trace any device on the vessel by means of the 

 gold wire, keeping the lead strip as near to it as possible on the inner 

 luriace. Mr. Smith conceives that a purple device would be produced 

 by the chemical change of the ingredients into the purple precipitate 

 of caasius. The colour would be baked in and glazed in the usual 

 way. Or he would cut a pattern in gold foil ; mount it on a band of 

 gutta-percha ; place the band round the vessel to press the gold close to 

 the earthenware ; and set the battery to work, to produce a pattern 

 following the outline of that of the gold foil. To vary the effects, by 

 producing blue or other colours instead of purple, platinum, palladium, 

 silver, copper, iron, or cobalt, may be used instead of gold ; and nitro- 

 muriatic acid or ferro-cyanide of potassium instead of muriate of tin. 

 The inventor appears to think that the precious metal deposited, from 

 its extreme thinness, would not be so costly as the engraving, paper, 

 printing, tc,, in the ordinary method ; but this, as well as many other 

 points connected with the suggestion, remain to be proved. 



We spoke above of one of the recent novelties as being concerned, 

 not with the dai'jni*;/ or en<,rarin</, but with the applying of the 

 device. This is the remarkable method recently patented by Mr. 

 Collins. He can enlarge or diminish an engraving without re-engraving 

 the plate. The processes are not yet placed before the public in such a 

 form that they can be described minutely; but their rationale is 

 somewhat as follows : Let us suppose, first, that the device is to be 

 enlarged. It is engraved on copper ; an impression is token from it, 

 with a peculiar ink and in a peculiar way, on the flat surface of a 

 substance in which india-rubber is the chief ingredient ; this surface a 

 stretched by a most careful proce**, acting on every part of it equally, 

 so as to produce no distortion of the device, although it may be twice 

 as long and broad, or cover four times the area, as before. From this 

 stretched surface an electrotype cast is obtained ; and from this cast 

 impressions may be printed on paper. Let us suppose, on the other 

 hand, that the device is to be diminished. It a engraved on copper ; an 

 impression is taken from this on an india-rubber surface already in a 



i* that is, the surface U stretched before instead of after 

 _ of the impression. The tension U then removed, by which 

 the surface is brought back to iU original size ; and the device appears 

 upon it in a much smaller form than on the original copper 

 I>rrhaps only one half as long and broad, or covering only one-fourth 

 the area. An electrotype cast is taken, and the printing proceeds. An 

 engraving may thus be copied on an enlarged or a diminished Male, 

 without re-engraving. The possible applications of this very remark- 

 able invention to the fine arts, we will not touch upon in this article ; 

 but it may be well to mention that a joint-stock com|>any, now form- 

 ing for carrying out the patent, counts much upon its valuable u 

 ui.-nt in printing earthenware. Staffordshire now produces sets, or 

 suites, or services of useful earthenware, in which the same pattern is 

 depicted on all the cups, saucers, plates, dishes, banns, and other 

 pieces some small and some large ; some circular and others oval 

 Hitherto it has been necessary to engrave as many plates as there are 

 sices and shapes in the suite ; but now it is hoped that one plate will 

 suffice for all or nearly all. It can be expanded or contracted to 

 suit circular articles of different diameters; or, if stretched or con- 

 tracted more in one direction than the other, it can transform a circular 

 device into an oval. Specimens have already been produced, showing 

 the application of this principle in a very sinking way. 



The earthenware factories of England are mostly situated in that 

 remarkable district of Staffordshire known as the Potteries. The towns, 

 considered topographically, are noticed in the GEOGRAPHICAL l)i 

 of this CYCLOPAEDIA; therefore we may, in this place, simply say of them 

 that Tunstall, Buralem, Cobridge, Hanley, Shelton, Etruria, Stoke; 

 Fen ton, Longton, and Lane End, and many other places whose names are 

 lees known, form virtually one town ten miles long, almost the whole 

 of the inhabitants of which are supported by the earthenware and j>r- 

 celoin manufactures. Good clay is found there for the Beggars or 

 baking vessels, and for bricks for kilns, &c. ; cheap coal is dug in the 

 vicinity ; and there is easy transport, by canal and railway, to the great 

 shipping port at Liverpool. The pottery works (often called banJct by 

 the work-people) have a general similarity one to another. Each pre- 

 sents to view on the exterior its large, lofty, dork-coloured structures, 

 which are the hovels or casings surrounding the ovens in which the 

 ware is baked; and each has in its immediate neighbourhood u In ill- 

 streets of houses, in which the work-people reside. Inside, the buildings 

 generally surround a large number of open courts or passages. There 

 is little symmetry or elegance, for many of the establishments have 

 gradually grown by the addition of new buildings to those originally 

 used. So vast ore the quantities made, that each cluster of buildings 

 is usually devoted to a particular branch of the manufacture dishes 

 in one building, plates in another, saucers in a third, coloured ware in 

 a fourth, printed ware in a fifth, and so on. 



The extent of the earthenware and porcelain manufacture in England 

 is not correctly known ; a few years ago it was roughly estimated at 

 2,500,000/. annually. Of the exports we have better means of judging. 

 The declared values in three years, separated by intervals of seven 

 years apart for the purpose of comparison, were set down thus : 







1844 766,000 



1851 1,121,000 



1858 1,151,000 



This last named value U supposed to have been represented by about 

 100 million pieces ; if so, it presents an average of less than threepence 

 each piece or vessel, showing that the bulk of the export is in the form 

 of common cheap earthenware ; indeed the familiar earthenware plates, 

 cups, ;md saucers, are the chief articles. From the following entries it 

 will be seen that the United States are our best customers for these 

 commodities : 







Exported in 1858 to the United States . . 379,000 



Brazil . . . 99,000 



British America . 54,000 



East Indies . . 82,000 



Australia . . . 106,000 

 Other countries . 498,000 



The time seems to be approaching when the United States will make 

 earthenware for themselves, instead of buying so largely from us. At 

 Pittaburg in Pennsylvania, and at Liverpool on the Ohio, large pottery 

 establishments have arisen within the lost few years. Missouri supplies 

 fine clay for earthenware, and Delaware still finer for porcelain ; and as 

 fuel is cheap, the manufacturers ore now largely producing fur (In- 

 western states of the Union. A kind of queen's wore is made, with 

 raised devices on a cobalt blue glaze. There is also a flint-enamelled 

 ware, made from a very white clay found near Charleston. One peculiar 

 manufacture is that of earthenware knobs for common locks ; they are 

 made of a striated mixture of red and yellow clay, coated with a strong 

 brown glaze ; and a hole for the spindle is made by the process of 

 casting the knob. The article produced is cheap, durable, and con- 

 venient. 



The continent of Europe produces no earthenware, in quality and 

 price combined, equal to that of England. The ceramic manufactures 

 ore there eminent ^rather for the porcelain than the earthenware. 



[PORCKLAIN.J 



