Divisions of Chapter.--Japanese Method of Preparing Porcelain Clay.--Old Sèvres Soft Porcelain.--Pug-Mill.--Blunger.--Early Italian Methods.--Shaping the Clay.--Moulding among the Egyptians, Greeks, Italians, and at the Present Day.--Moulding Porcelain.--Japanese Method.--European.--Throwing.--The Potter’s Wheel in all Countries.--Baking and Firing.--Egyptian, Greek, Italian, and Japanese Kilns.--Those of Modern Europe and America.--Times of Firing.--Glazing and Painting.--Metallic-Lustre Majolica.--Japanese Methods.--Glazing Stone-ware.--Natural and Artificial Porcelain. Having thus glanced at the different wares, and learned the composition of the leading kinds of paste and glaze, the attention is next attracted by the processes of preparing the materials, and the different methods of manufacture. The levigation of kaolin and making of porcelain have already been touched upon incidentally. The subject of the present chapter naturally divides itself into the following heads: Preparation of the paste; Forming the vessel to be made; Baking or firing; Preparation of the glaze or enamel; Applying the glaze or enamel; Laying on the color and painting. To what has been said about the preparation of English and Chinese kaolin pastes, little need be added. There is, however, a peculiarity about the Japanese custom not unworthy of notice. In that country the raw material, whether kaolin, quartz, or felspar, is reduced to a powder by a horizontal balancing pounder of primitive construction, and worked by water-power. Two long beams are joined together at one end by an iron-cased crossbar, and a trough is attached to the other. This frame is then erected near a stream, so that the water will fall into the trough. The weight of the water carries the trough down, and the other end is raised to a corresponding height. When the trough has fallen so far that, by reason of the slope, the water runs out and thus takes off the weight at that end, the iron-shod beam at the other descends, and falling into a stone mortar in which the raw material has been placed, in a very short time pulverizes it. The above is the only machine employed by the Japanese. After being pulverized, the paste is sifted, mixed with water, and decanted, and the water is finally drained off through matting and sand. The fine clay to be used in making porcelain is deposited on the mat. For the old Sèvres soft porcelain, the frit was crushed, cleared of salts, and ground in water. The paste was then mixed with the other ingredients, as previously given in the table. [Illustration: Fig. 21.--Vertical Pug-Mill, in use at Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint.]