252 Porcelain and Earthenware. 
sorbing the water rapidly from the ware, and causes it to slip or 
“deliver” itself easily from the mould. In the course of three or 
four hours, they are sufficiently hardened to be taken from the moulds 
when they are set singly in a room shelved on all sides from the 
floor to the ceiling and heated by a stove. 
Common table plates and saucers, will in this way be ready in two 
hours to be removed from the moulds, which are again employed for 
a fresh parcel. When they are taken from this stove, the edges 
are pared if necessary with a knife, and the whole surface rubbed 
over gently with the band, or a piece of soft flannel when they are 
ready for the biscuit oven. 
Articles of oval or irregular forms are made by plaster moulds di- 
vided in halves for the convenience of taking out the ware, whenev- 
er it is dry enough to be removed, one half the figure being respec- 
tively on the two sides of the mould. ‘The clay is rolled into two flat 
pieces, of the thickness of the ware intended to be made, and after 
being pressed into the moulds, the two halves are brought together 
forming a perfect junction. ‘This is called pressing, and it is the 
manner in which handles, spouts, mouldings, &c. are made. They 
are adapted to the vessels for which they were intended by dipping 
them in “slip,” which is the prepared clay in a semi-fluid state, and 
when affixed to the ware, the point of union is as perfect as the most 
solid parts. Figures in relief of the finest workmanship, tables, 
vases, images, flowers and other curious works in porcelain are thus 
fashioned. 
In casting, the clay is poured in a pulpy state into moulds of plaster, 
which soon absorbs the fluid from that part contiguous to their sur- 
faces; the liquid part is then poured out, and that which remains 
stiffens so rapidly, that ina few minutes the mould may be removed, 
when the exterior of the cast is an exact copy of the mould, and its 
thickness in proportion to the time allowed for the operation. 
When the articles have been formed agreeably to the design of the 
artist, and dried in the stove room, they are placed with the great- 
est care in saggars and taken to the oven. Saggars are oval cases 
or boxes made of fire clay, and being flat at the bottom they fit ex- 
actly, one forming a cover for another, and being of the same diam- 
eter, the workmen place them in piles nearly to the top of the kiln, 
perfectly enclosing the ware from immediate contact with flame or 
smoke. ‘The kiln or oven is a conical building, with the receptacles 
on the outside for fuel, with flues opening into it capable of holding 
