BOTTGER AND TSCHIBNHAUSEX. 



required a more intense heat than could he obtained hy the 

 furnaces then in use, were effected by means of the solar rays 

 collected in the focus of a large burning mirror, constructed by 

 Tschirnhausen. 



Tschirnhausen die .1 the next year, 1708. This event, however, 

 did not interrupt the course of experiments. Large ovens were 

 erected, and batches of earthenware were exposed in them to the 

 effect of the furnaces, often for five consecutive days and nights, 

 producing successful results so far as the nature of the clays used 

 permitted. The king, wishing to witness one of these experi- 

 ments, they drew from the oven, in his presence, a tea-pot, still 

 red-hot, which, being plunged in water, sustained the sudden 

 change of temperature without injury. 



15. The pottery thus produced was still, however, only a good 

 stone- ware, with a red body, to which the brilliancy of porcelain 

 was attempted to be imparted, either by polishing it on the wheel 

 of a lapidary, or by covering it with an opaque-coloured glaze, 

 which was vitrified at a comparatively low temperature. 



At length, however, chance brought to Bottger a knowledge of 

 the constituents of the true oriental porcelain, so long and so 

 vainly sought for. 



16. About this time, John Schnorr, one of the most wealthy 

 and extensive iron-masters of Erzgebirge, happened to pass on 

 horseback near ATJE, where he observed the action of his horse to 

 be impeded by reason of his feet sticking in a sort of white, soft, 

 and tenacious earth, which lay upon the road, and which evidently 

 formed the superficial stratum of the ground at that place. At 

 that time, the use of hair-powder was universal, and that article 

 formed consequently an object of commerce of capital importance. 

 Engaged largely himself in commercial speculations, and endowed 

 with an enterprising genius and quick sagacity, Schnorr conceived 

 the idea of submitting this white clay to experiment, for the 

 purpose of purifying it, and reducing it to a fine powder, which 

 might find a profitable market as hair-powder, thus displacing the 

 powder produced from wheaten flour. 



Schnorr realised this project with complete success, and after a 

 series of experiments made at Carlsfeld, established a manufactory 

 of it, and soon found an extensive market and large demand for 

 the article at Dresden, Leipsic, Zittau, and, in short, in all the 

 German towns, where the new powder was known under the name 

 of SCHXOER'S WHITE EAETH. 



17. Bottger, like all others of that day, wearing powder, he 

 happened, while Klunker, his valet, was occupied in dressing his 

 hair, to take in his hand a packet of the powder which he was 

 using, and being struck with its extraordinary weight, greatly 



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