DISCOVERY OF FRENCH KAOLIN. 



Madame Darnet, the wife of a village surgeon, residing at 

 Bt Yrkix, near Limoges, accidentally found in a valley in the 

 neighbourhood of that town a white unctuous earth, which she 

 regarded as being capable of being rendered useful in the washing 

 of linen. With this purpose she showed it to her husband, who, 

 better informed, suspected other and more valuable properties in 

 it, and undertook a journey to Bordeaux to submit it to a chemist 

 of that place, named Yillaris. This person, who had been already 

 informed of the qualities necessary for porcelain clay, and of the 

 eagerness with which it was sought for, suspected that the speci- 

 men brought to him by M. Darnet possessed these qualities. It 

 was accordingly sent to Macquer, the chemist at Paris, who was 

 then occupied in experiments on the improvement of porcelain. 

 He immediately recognised in this specimen of clay the true 

 kaolin, and went to St. Yrieix in August 1768, where he found 

 a large vein of this precious material. Experiments were made 

 upon it upon a considerable scale at Sevres, where all doubts upon 

 the subject were soon removed ; and the kaolin of St. Yrieix near 

 Limoges was immediately adopted as the material, and the fabri- 

 cation of the hard porcelain was commenced. 



7. M. Brongniart relates a curious and interesting anecdote 

 connected with this subject. He says that, in 1825, being at 

 Sevres, where he was still director, an aged woman addressed 

 herself to him one day supplicating temporary relief, and appa- 

 rently suffering from extreme want. She asked for aid to 

 enable her to return on foot to St. Yrieix, whence she had come. 

 This woman was Madame Darnet, the discoverer of the kaolin 

 of Limoges. The relief she sought was immediately given to 

 her; and, on the application of M. Brongniart, Louis XYIII. 

 granted her a small pension on the civil list, which she enjoyed 

 tiU her death. 



8. The first English porcelain was manufactured at Bow and 

 Chelsea, near London, the paste being composed of a mixture of 

 the sand from Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight, with a plastic clay 

 and powdered flint glass ; this was covered with a leaden glaze. 

 This manufactory had considerable success. 



In 1748, the manufacture was transferred to Derby ; and in 1751, 

 Dr. Wale established at Worcester a manufactory of tender por- 

 celain, called the " Worcester Porcelain Company," which stil] 

 exists, though in other hands. To Dr. Wale is attributed the inven- 

 tion of printing on porcelain, by the transferring of printed patterns 

 from paper to the biscuit. The proposed design is first engraved 

 on copper, and the colouring matter being applied to the engraving 

 in the same manner as in common copper-plate printing, the design 

 is transferred to paper. This paper is afterwards applied to the 



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