597 
W E D G 
Where have you been broiling ?— 
—Among the crowd i’ the abbey, where a finger 
Could not be wedg'd in more. Shakspeare . 
To force as a wedge forces. 
Part 
In common, rang’d in figure, wedge their way; 
Intelligent of seasons. Milton. 
To fasten by wedges. 
Wedge on the keenest scythes, 
And give us steeds that snort against the foe. A. Philips. 
To fix as a wedge.—Your wit will not so soon out as an¬ 
other man’s will; it is strongly wedged up in a blockhead. 
Shakspeare. 
WEDGE ISLAND, a small island in the North Pacific 
ocean, near the east coast of the Prince of Wales’s Archipe¬ 
lago, in the Duke of Clarence’s Strait. Lat. 55. 8 . N. long. 
228. 20. E.—2. An island on the south coast of New Hol¬ 
land, at the mouth of Spencer’s Gulf, the largest of the group 
called by captain Flinders, Gambier’s isles. Lat. 35. 11. S. 
long. 136.29. E. 
WEDGWOOD (Josias), was the younger son of a Staf¬ 
fordshire potter, and born in July, 1730. His education was 
restricted, but his mental powers were of a superior kind, so 
that by the fixed and persevering exercise of them he made 
very considerable improvement in the art of pottery, to 
which his attention was directed, and gave a name as well 
as reputation to the place of his nativity. (See Pottery.) 
His patrimony was small, but by his supereminent skill 
and steady application he was the founder of his own 
fortune as well as fame. The principal seat of the pot¬ 
teries of Staffordshire was Burslem; and there is reason to 
believe that they have existed in or near this place for many 
centuries, and even, as some say, since the time of the Ro¬ 
mans. But they had continued for a long time in the same 
rude state in which Plot found them when he surveyed this 
county. The merit of introducing into this country improve¬ 
ments in the art of pottery must be ascribed to two brothers 
of the name of Eders, who came hither from Holland about 
the year 1700, and settled in the neighbourhood of the Staf¬ 
fordshire potteries. They manufactured a red unglazed 
porcelain from a clay, which they found in the estate on 
which they settled, called “Bradwell;” but this was only 
the brown stone ware, in the composition of which no flint is 
used; but they made use of salt in glazing it; this salt, or 
muriate of soda, was thrown into the oven at a certain stage 
of the firing process, and the pieces of ware were so disposed 
as to receive the fumes of it on every part of their surfaces. 
The fumes, however, occasioned an alarm in the neighbour¬ 
hood, which obliged them to leave the country. A similar 
manufactory, however, was soon after established at Shelton, 
in the Potteries, by one of their workmen, whose name was 
Astbury, and who had possessed himself of their secret; and 
as it was found very useful, it was tolerated by the inhabitants, 
though on the day of glazing, the dense offensive fumes from 
fifty or sixty manufactories filled the vallies, and covered the 
hills through an extent of several miles. The white stone 
ware, and the use of ground flints in pottery, were intro¬ 
duced at a later period, and, as it is said, in consequence of 
the following incident. About the year 1720, a potter, sup¬ 
posed to be the above-mentioned Astbury, stopped at Dun¬ 
stable in his way to London, and sought a remedy for a 
disorder in his horse’s eyes; and the ostler of the inn by 
burning a flint stone reduced it to a fine powder, which he 
blew into them. The potter, observing the beautiful white 
colour of the flint after calcination, instantly thought of ap¬ 
plying the discovery to the improvement of his art, and after¬ 
wards introduced the white pipe-clays found on the south 
side of Devonshire, instead of the iron-clays of his own 
country, and thus produced the white stone ware. At first 
the flints were pulverized, to the great injury of the persons 
employed ; till the famous Brindley, in the early period of 
his life, constructed the mills that are now used tor grinding 
them in a moist state. It is farther said, that an ingenious 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1659. 
WOOD. 
mechanic, named Alsager, afterwards improved the construc¬ 
tion of the potter’s wheel, so as to give much greater preci¬ 
sion and neatness to the work. But still the French pottery 
exceeded in beauty that of Staffordshire; and about the year 
1760, a considerable quantity of it was imported, and pur¬ 
chased by persons of opulence to the great detriment of the 
English manufacture. Mr. Wedgwood directed his attention 
to this article, and made several improvements with regard to 
the forms, colours, and composition of his manufacture; and 
in the year 1763 invented a kind of ware for the table, which 
gave a turn to the market, and under the name of the queen’s 
ware, conferred upon it in consequence of the patronage of 
her majesty, came into very general use. Its materials were 
the whitest clays from Devonshire and Dorsetshire, mixed 
with ground flint, and covered with a vitreous glaze. By 
varying and repeating his experiments, Mr. Wedgwood dis¬ 
covered the mode of manufacturing other species of earthen¬ 
ware and porcelain, excellent and beautiful, and adapted to 
various purposes both of use and ornament. With a view of 
prosecuting his improvement in pottery, he applied to the 
study of chemistry, and for his farther assistance engaged the 
ingenious Mr. Chisholme, who had been employed in a simi¬ 
lar department by the celebrated Dr. Lewis, author of the 
“ Commercium Philosophico-Technicum ;” for whom he 
not only built a comfortable habitation near the manufac¬ 
tory, but liberally afforded him an annuity for his support 
under the decays of age, which he continued till his death. 
Aided also by the classical taste of his partner, Mr. Bentley, 
potteries were furnished which served as models for various 
articles, formed of other materials, that were held in high esti¬ 
mation. We learn from Dr. Bancroft, that almost all the 
finely diversified colours which Mr. Wedgw r ood applied to 
his pottery were produced only by the oxyds of iron. In 
the manufacture of his beautiful jasper ware, which rivalled 
the productions of antiquity, and which found its way into 
the collections of the curious in all parts of Europe, he em- 
‘ ployed the native sulphate of barytes, and from this use of it 
he derived great profit, until, by the infidelity of a servant, 
the secret was disclosed and sold, so that others employed 
inferior workmen at a reduced salary, and thus prevented 
Mr. Wedgwood from employing his exquisite modellers on 
that branch of the manufacture. 
Among other curious productions of this inventive manu¬ 
facturer, we may mention his imitation of the Barberini, or 
Portland vase, which was discovered in the tomb of Alex¬ 
ander Severus, and for which the late duchess of Portland 
paid 1000 guineas. The subscription for Mr. Wedgwood’s 
manufacture was at the rate of 50/. each for fifty vases, but 
such were the expences of its execution, that the partners lost 
money by the undertaking. Mr. Webber, it is said, received 
500 guineas merely for modelling it. 
We cannot forbear in this connection noticing two cameos 
of Mr. Wedgwood’s manufacture; one of a slave in chains, 
of which he distributed many hundreds, with a view of ex¬ 
citing the humane to assist in the abolition of the slave-trade; 
and the other a cameo of Hope, attended by Peace and Art 
and Labour, which was made of argillaceous earth from 
Botany Bay, to which place he sent many of them, in order 
to shew what their materials were capable of, and to encou¬ 
rage the industry of the inhabitants. 
The district which Mr. Wedgwood inhabited became by 
his means the seat of population and abundance. The vi¬ 
cinity was enriched, and a new canal of importance, called 
the Grand Trunk canal, and connecting the Trent and the 
Mersey, was obtained and executed by his influence. The 
ample fortune which he acquired was liberally enjoyed, and 
benevolently applied to many purposes of private charity and 
public utility. Chemistry and the arts in their mutual con¬ 
nection were objects of his attention; and he contrived an 
instrument for measuring high degrees of heat, called a py¬ 
rometer, of which he gave an account in the Phil. Trans, for 
1782, 1784, and 1786. 
The disposition and manners of Mr. Wedgwood were no 
less estimable than the powers of his mind; so that he was 
as much the object of admiration and esteem for his moral 
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