26

EXPOSITION  AT  VIENNA.

When,  in  1762,  the  people  of  the  pottery  region  petitioned
Parliament  in  favor  of  an  Act  for  a  turnpike  road,  they  set
forth  that  in  Burslem  and  the  neighborhood  there  were  nearly
one  hundred  and  fifty  separate  potteries  for  making  various
kinds  of  stone  and  earthen  wäre,  employing  and  supporting
nearly  seven  thousand  people.  Many  tons  of  shipping,  and
seamen  in  proportion,  were  employed  in  winter  carrying
materials  for  the  Burslem  wäre,  and.  as  much  salt  was  used
for  glazing  as  paid  an  animal  duty  of  £5,000  to  the  government.

In  teil  months  of  1871  there  were  90,412  packages  of
North  Staflbrdshiro  wäre  exported  from  Liverpool.  The
total  value  of  the  exports  of  porcelain  and  earthenware  from
the  kingdom—the  greater  part  of  which  was  produced  in  the
Staffordshire  potteries—amounted,  in  teil  months  of  1871,  to
£1,423,110  in  value.  This  is  about  the  same  as  in  1864  and
1865,  the  value  of  the  production  being  in  the  latter  year
£1,442,000.  The  animal  consumption  of  coal  in  the  art,  in
1865,  was  about  450,000  tons,  and  in  1870,  according  to
official  returns,  680,000  tons.  To  color  the  clay  and  print
the  wäre,  in  1865,  about  67,000  pounds  of  oxide  of  cobalt
were  used,  and  1,100  tons  of  borax  and  boracic  acid  in  glazing, ­
  and  12,000  ounces  of  gold  in  gilding.  About  4,500
tons  of  calcined  bones  from  South  America  were  consumed
annually.  In  1861,  40,697  persons  were  engaged  in  the
manufacture.
English  porcelain  is  said  to  differ  from  either  thepdte  dure
or  the  pAte  tendre  of  the  French,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  to
combine  the  qualities  of  both.  A  high  degree  of  translucency
  is  obtained  by  the  use  of  phosphate  of  lime.  It  is
not  as  plastic  as  hard  porcelain,  but  may  be  cast,  moulded,
or  turned  easily  in  the  ordinary  ways.  It  combines  well  with
the  frits  of  the  pale  tendre,  and  with  glazes  adapted  to  colored
decoratioijs.
The  exhibitors  deserve  great  credit  for  their  liberal  repre-  *
sentation  of  the  industry,  by  sending  to  such  a  great  distance
so  many  bulky  and  fragile  objects  of  great  value.  The  more
important  of  the  collections  will  now  be  briefly  uoticed.