236 CERAMIC WAKE. 



1 Galloping from my house to your honour,' replied the 

 man of powder and pomatum, c my horse struck his hoof into 

 something, and stumbled. Alighting to discover the cause, 

 I found a white material clogging his shoe. Digging, I found 

 more of that white material. It seemed good for powder, 

 and for powder I used it. Sorry the weight of it has incom- 

 moded your honour.' 



Bottger pardoned the weight. The idea suddenly" occurred 

 to him, that though bad for wig-powder, it might be good for 

 pottery. He procured some, and trying, found it good. At 

 Meissen, near Dresden, a manufactory was forthwith esta- 

 blished. The celebrated Dresden china sprang into being. 

 From that day to this, the Saxons have continued using 

 up the stores of porcelain materials revealed by the barber's 

 horse. 



Dresden manufactured hard or true porcelain from the 

 first. This was not the case at Sevres, as will be remembered. 

 There, soft porcelain continued to be made up to the begin- 

 ning of the present century. Then the process was aban- 

 doned ; and true porcelain has been made there ever since. 



At the present time, white ceramic material is less difficult 

 of access than formerly. Immense quantities of china clay 

 are now made artificially, so to speak. The rock, granite, is 

 a mixture of three different minerals viz. quartz, mica, and 

 felspar. In all specimens of granite these three materials 

 can be perceived by the naked eye on examination ; but in 

 certain granites the commingling of these materials is far less 

 intimate than in others. Near St. Austell, in Cornwall, the 

 granite is remarkably coarse-grained ; that is to say, the quartz, 

 mica, and felspar which compose it occur respectively in large 

 lumps. Looking now at the composition of felspar, chemistry 

 reveals potash, lime, silica, and alumina as its constituents. 

 Potash being soluble, is washed out by exposure to air and 

 water, leaving a white compound of silica, alumina, a little 

 lime, and potash ; the whole chemically combined with water 



