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 pot- 
teries-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 trav- 
ellers 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 ex- 
ample, 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 kilo- 
gramme 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.