Their success with the salt glaze induced Littler and Wedgwood to make the first attempt to produce real porcelain in Staffordshire. The proper distinction between earthenware and porcelain is the complete vitrification of the body in the case of porcelain, as opposed to the vitrifying and glazing of the surface only in the case of earthenware. The Bow porcelain factory had started in 1744, Chelsea in 1745, Worcester in 1751. In 1752 Littler and Wedgwood left their Brownhills factory and removed to Longton Hall. Here they began to make the well-known Longton Hall porcelain. Perhaps Wedgwood or Littler had worked at Chelsea. However that may be, the porcelain manufactured was of the Chelsea type. The body was largely made of ground glass, while china clay, the basis of true porcelain, was not used at all. The characteristic feature of this Longton Hall porcelain is the bright under-glaze blue that previously adorned Littler’s salt-glaze ware. This Longton Hall factory only continued till 1758.[68] Owing to the lack of demand for this kind of ware, they lost all their money in the venture and finally discontinued it. The stock-in-trade is said to have been bought up by Duesbury, who transferred it to the Derby porcelain factory, started in 1756.[69] It was not till the discovery of China Clay and China Stone and of their fusing properties in 1768 that porcelain was again attempted in Staffordshire. Through his daughter Ann this Aaron Wedgwood was the grandfather of William Clowes, known as the “founder” of Primitive Methodism. While the manufacture of salt glaze was flourishing, more especially at the northern end of the district, the old soft-fired earthenware, mottled, black and cloudy, was still being made, and the old slip decorated ware had not entirely vanished. But the only famous potter in what might be called the old Staffordshire style was Thomas Whieldon. Thomas Whieldon began making pots at Little Fenton about 1740. He was a better educated class of man than the ordinary potter. He potted well; enjoyed trials and experiments for their own sake; and, through his connection with both Wedgwood and Spode, he may be said to have had the same influence on the taste and education of the Staffordshire potters that Elers had unintentionally half a century before. If we are to believe Shaw, writing in 1828, he began in a very humble way. He says: “In 1740 Mr Thomas Whieldon’s manufactory at Little Fenton consisted of a small range of low buildings, all thatched. His early productions were knife hafts for the Sheffield cuttlers; and snuffboxes for the Birmingham hardwaremen, to finish with hoops, hinges and springs; which he himself usually carried in a basket to the tradesmen; and being much like agate they were greatly in request.”[70]