PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE.
47
replace hand labor; and the introduction of English methods
had Iransformed the manufacture. Also that, as regards
porcelain, the softening caused by the high temperature
required for the baking, deforms pieces made in any other
way than by hand; and that up to that time no mechanical
assistance had been found available; but there was good
reason to hope that in the shaping and preparation of the
material, mechanical art might eventual ly lend its aid.
Workmen were paid by the piece. No less than 1,362
men and 458 women were employed in decoration ot china
alone, in Paris, in 1867. The greater number of the potteries-have
agencies, or depots, at Paris, or send their wäre
there for sale. Paris is the great centre of the trade, and
Limoges is next in importance. From this last named place,
wäre is sent to all parts of the empire, by the aid of travellers
and agents.'» The annual value of the product of tine
faience was estimated, in 1867, at 10,000,000 francs, and of
porcelain at 20,000,000 francs.
French Stone-China.
At the Paris Exposition, in 1867, the various brands of
stone-china wäre were carefully examined by M. Airne
Girard, with reference to thcir hardness, porosity, and price. ,
To ascertain the hardness of «the glaze upon a plate, for example,
he used a small platform of wood, sustained upon
three points resting upon the plate, one of them being tipped
with a diamond. This platform was then drawn back and
fbrth over the surface, and the weight required to be added
to the platform to produce a scratch was the measure of the
hardness. IJc found that a pressure of more than one kilogramme
was required to make as muck of an impression upon
hard porcelain as one hundred and twenty grammes would
sive on lead-'dazed stone wäre. His results are given in the
following table.* •
* From Rapports du Jury International, III., p. 136.
