Chap. IX.] Mechanic Arts. 121 



dinarily employed a number of weeks, and even 

 several months, reecnt diseoveries have fllrni^hed 

 means of redueing eloth to a state of bcaiitifid 

 whiteness in a few hours. 



In the art of Dyeing no less signal progress Iras 

 been made within a few years. The learned in- 

 vestigations, and laborious experiments, which 

 have been successively instituted for the improve- 

 ment of this art, by Dufay, Ilellot, Macquer, 

 d'Apligny, and BerthoUet, of France; and by 

 Messrs! Delaval and Henry, Dr. Bancroft *, and 

 others, of Great Britain, are very honourably 

 displayed in their respective works, and have been 

 productive of great utility to several of the manu- 

 facturing classes of the community. 



In the eighteenth century the first Porcelain ware 

 ever manufactured in Europe was produced. The 

 account of the invention, is curious. John Frede 

 ric Bottger, a German, about the year 1706 be- 

 lieved, or pretended, that he had learned the art 

 of transmuting various substances into gold, from 

 a goldsmith at Berlin. He went into Saxony, and 

 was allowed all the requisite materials, and every 

 assistance necessarv for prosecuting his operations, 

 by certain persons who thought proper to encou- 

 rage him. For several years he laboured m vaui. 

 At^'last, imputing his want of success to the cruci- 

 bles not being of a proper quality, he attempted 

 to make these vessels himself of a hard and dura- 

 ble kind ; and in this attempt he accidentally pro- 



* Experimental Researches concerning the PMosophy of Ferma^ 

 nenl Colours. By E. Bancroft, M.D. &c. 1794. 



