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diiced for tea and coffee equipages. Soon 
after, attempts were made to furnish the din- 
ner table also ; and, before the middle of the 
century, utensils for the table were manu- 
factured in quantity, as well for exporta- 
tion as home consumption. But the salt 
glaze, the only one then in use for this pur- 
pose, is in its own nature so imperfect, and 
the potters, from an injudicious competition 
among themselves for cheapness, rather 
than excellence, had been so inattentive to 
elegance of form, and neatness of workmau- 
sh'ip, that this ware was rejected from the 
tables of persons of rank ; and about the 
year 1760, a white ware, much more beau- 
tiful, and better glazed than ours, began to 
be imported in considerable quantities 
from France. This inundation of a foreign 
manufacture, so much superior to any of 
our own, must have had very bad effects 
upon the potteries of this kingdom, if a new 
one, still more to the public taste, had not 
appeared soon after. In the year 1763, 
Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, w'ho had already in- 
troduced several improvements into this 
art, invented a species of earthen ware for 
the table, quite new in its appearance, co- 
vered with a rich and brilliant glaze, bear- 
ing sudden alternations of heat and cold, 
manufactured with ease and expedition, 
and consequently cheap, and having every 
requisite for the purpose intended. To 
this new manufacture the Queen was 
pleased to give her name and patronage, 
commanding it to be called Queen’s Ware, 
and honouring the inventor by appointing 
him her Majesty’s potter. The common 
clay of the countiy is used for the ordinaiy 
sorts ; the finer kinds are made of clay from 
Devonshire and Dorsetshire, chiefly from 
Riddeford ; but the flints from the Thames 
are all brought rough by sea, either to Li- 
verpool, or Hull, and so by Burton. There 
is no conjecture formed of the original rea- 
son of fixing the manufacture in this spot, 
except for the convenience of plenty of 
coals, which abound under all the country. 
The flints are first ground in mills, and the 
clay prepared by breaking, washing, and 
sifting, and then they are mixed in the re- 
quisite proportions. The flints are bought 
tirst by the people about the country, and by 
them burnt and ground, and sold to the ma- 
nufacturers by the peck. The mixture is 
then laid in large quantities on kilns, to 
evaporate the moisture ; but this is a nice 
work, as it must not be too dry ; next it is 
beat with large wooden hammers, and then 
is in order for throwing, and is moulded 
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into the forms in which it is to remain } 
this is the most difficult work in the whole 
manufacture, A boy turns a pferpendicular 
wheel, wdiich by means of thongs turns a 
small horizontal one, just before the thrower, 
with sudi velocity, that it twirls round the 
lump of clay he lays on it into any form he 
directs it with his fingers. 
There were many years ago 300 houses, 
wdiich were calculated to employ, upon an 
average, 20 hands each, or 6000 in the whole ; 
but of all the variety of people that work in 
wliat may be called the preparation for the 
employment of the immediate manufactur- 
ers, tlie total number is said to be not much 
short of 15,000, and it is increasing every 
day. Large quantities are exported to Ger- 
many, Ireland, Holland, Russia, Spain, tlie 
East Indies, and much to America; some 
of the finest sorts to France. 
STOP, in music, a word applied liy vio- 
lin and violincello performers to that pres- 
sure of the strings by which they are brought 
into contact with the finger-board, and by 
which the pitch of the note is determined: 
a string so pressed is said to be stopped. 
Stop, trumpet, a reed metallic stop, so 
called because its tone is imitative of the 
trumpet. In large organs it generally ex- 
tends through the whole compass. The 
mouths of its pipes are not formed like 
those of the pipes of other stops, but re- 
semble that of the real trumpet. At the 
bottom of each of the pipes of this stop, in 
a cavity called the socket, is fixed a brass 
reed, stopped at the lower end, and open in 
front ; it is furnished with a tong-ue, or 
brass spring, which covers the opening, and 
which, when the wind is impelled into the 
pipe, is thereby put into a vibratory motion, 
which produces the imitative tone peculiar 
to this stop. The trumpet stop is the most 
powerful in the instrument, and improves 
the tone as much as it increases the peal of 
the chorus. Unisonous with the diapasons 
it strengthens the foundation, subdues the 
dissonances of the thirds and fifths of the 
sesquialtera, and imparts to the compound 
a richness and grandeur of effect adequate 
to the subliinest subjects. 
STOPPER, in a ship, a piece of cable- 
laid rope, having a wale-knot at one end, 
with a laniard fastened to it ; and the other 
end is spliced round a thimble in the ring- 
bolts upon deck, and at the bits : its use is 
to stop the cable, that it may not run out 
too fast ; in order to whieli, they make 
turns with the laniard about the cable, and 
I 
