1 72 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



of optical instruments and also an alchemist and said 

 to Bottgher, still in fear of the gallows, " If you can't 

 make gold, try and do something else ; make porcelain ! " 

 Some rare specimens of this ware had been brought from 

 China by the Portuguese, and were sold for more than 

 their weight in gold. 



Bottgher at once acted on his friend's hint. He 

 began his experiments on clay, working night and day. 

 After many failures, some red clay was brought to him 

 for the purpose of making his crucibles, and then he 

 was set on the right track. This clay, when submitted 

 to a high temperature, became vitrified and retained its 

 shape. In texture it resembled porcelain, except in 

 colour and opacity. He had, in fact, accidentally dis- 

 covered red porcelain, and he manufactured and sold it 

 as porcelain. 



He was aware, however, that the transparent white 

 colour was an essential property of true porcelain. 

 Years passed, when another happy accident came to his 

 help. One day in the year 1707 he found his peruke 

 very heavy and asked his valet " what was the reason." 

 The valet said that the powder with which the wig was 

 dressed consisted of a kind of earth that was much used 

 for hair-powder. Bottgher at once thought that this 

 might be the very earth of which he was in search ! 

 He at once experimented, and found that the principal 

 ingredient of the hair-powder was kaolin, the want of 

 which had so long formed an apparently insuperable 

 difficulty in the way of his investigations. 



