Department of Natural Sciences. 



ON KAOLIN IN WISCONSIN. 



BY EOLAND IRYING, A. M., E. M. 

 Professor of Geology, etc., in the State University 



I. — STATURE, ORIGI]Sr, AND OCCUEREJTCE OF KAOLIX. 



Origin of the u'ord " kaolin^ — The word kaolin is a corruption 

 of the Chinese kao-ling'^ or kcm-linc/^f meaning " high-ridge," the 

 name of a place near Jauchau Fa, in China, where for many centu- 

 ries the Chinese have obtained the material for the manufacture of 

 their famous porcelain. According to Von Richthofen.J however, 

 the Chinese material is not the same as that to which the term 

 kaolin is applied in Europe and America, but is on the contrary 

 a solid rock, which is exported in a pulverized condition under the 

 name of kao-ling. The application of this name to the European 

 porcelain-clay by Berzelius, was, according to Von Richthofen, made 

 on the erroneous supposition that the white powder which he re- 

 ceived from China occurred naturally in that state. 



What is kaolin? — However this may be, since Berzelius, the 

 word has been applied in Europe to a white clay-like substance which, 

 from its peculiar composition and freedom from any ingredients 

 tending to lessen the whiteness of the wares burnt from it, or its 

 refractoriness to heat, is especially adapted to form the base of the 

 finer kinds of pottery known as porcelain, whence its name of 



■^ Baron Von Eichthofen, American Journal Science, " On the Porcelain Eocks 

 of China,'' III i 179. Corap. also Percy's Metallnrgy, volume on Fuels, p 92. 



fDana's " Svstem of Mineralogy," p. 75 — S. W. Williams' "Middle Kingdom," 

 vol. II, p. lie". 



1 Log. cit. 



