The export of porcelain is not large; but that of earthenware reaches one and a half million of pounds. This does not appear large compared with the enormous amount exported by the iron or the cotton trades, but it is satisfactory, if taken in combination with the quantity absorbed by the home trade, which represents quite as much. Our colonial trade with Australia, India, and British America is decidedly on the increase, and the same may be said as regards South America. On the contrary, our transactions with the Continent of Europe have a tendency to decrease, and to fluctuate in the case of the United States, a very important market, which, in time of prosperity, would take as much as 800,000l. of granite ware.
To meet the competition of France and Germany, on one side, and the Americans on the other, great changes have taken place in the management of our works. Several processes have been improved or simplified, and large manufactories have been built on better principles. These steps were not taken too soon; for if competition scarcely existed for our goods twenty years ago, that state of things has been much altered, and it will require a great deal of application and energy on our part, if we intend to maintain our position as the largest and best producers of pottery in the world.
It is a fact that America, which had not a single manufactory worth the name at the time of the New York Exhibition, produces now, with the assistance of British workmen, granite ware of tolerably good quality; and I have been told by an eye-witness, that no less than seventy ovens are now at work at Trenton, in New Jersey. The clays and coals used by these potters are good, and if the salaries are higher than they are in England, they find a compensation in the heavy duties which, since the war of Secession, are levied on our wares.
Our commercial intercourse with France has not much altered, and the quantity of our goods sent across the Channel may be considered small compared with the importance of this market. The French are the largest producers of hard porcelain, and they make their common earthenware quite as cheap, if not cheaper, than ours. However, if they are strong at home, they have never affected our trade abroad, except in the United States, where they send their porcelain in competition with English granite.
At the present time, the rivalry from which we have suffered most in Germany, the North of Europe, and as far as Italy, comes from a group of establishments situated in the Rhenish provinces and that neighbourhood: at Sarreguemines, Sarrelouis, Vaudrevange, Mettlach, Maestricht, and a few other places. Built in the centre of a populous district, where labour is still very cheap, their intelligent and wealthy proprietors share in each other's business, and consequently have no inducement for lowering their prices. They seem to have given a considerable portion of their time to the study of the various processes, and they have so far succeeded, that they are a great deal more independent with regard to their men than we are. Possessing these advantages, we cannot wonder, if we have not been able to keep our hold on those markets which were the nearest to them. Besides, it is plain, that the important rise which has taken place in the price of wages and fuel, and the consequent increase in the price of our wares, has acted as an encouragement to foreign production; and perhaps it may be good policy, in future, to resist any further opportunity which might offer to increase the price of our goods. It would, however, be singular if, in the course of time, England did not derive some benefit from this competition; she is used to close contest, and, everything considered, her position is an enviable one. Our home trade is excellent; and if the amount of our exports does not progress so fast as we could desire, we know that we have in our commercial fleet more facilities that any other nation for sending our goods to those numerous countries where the trade of pottery is hardly established, and we rely on our honest and straightforward way of dealing, for securing new customers for English manufacture.
GLASS AND SILICATES.
By Professor Fredk. S. Barff, M.A.
The very brilliant and useful substance, which forms the subject of this article, is said to have been discovered by the Phœnicians. The story goes that some Phœnician merchants, while cooking their food on the sands near the seashore, noticed that the ashes of the plant, with which they made their fire, caused some of the sand to melt and form a vitreous substance; but whether this tale be true or not, it is well known that for a long time these people made glass from the materials which were abundant on their sea and river coasts.
Glass, however, was produced long before this by the Egyptians for the beads and ornaments used in adorning their mummies, and many specimens of these are in the British Museum. It is certain also that they well knew how to make certain substances impart colour to glass for the manufacture of most of these beads. The Romans made rich goblets of ruby glass, some of which are to be seen in collections in this country, as well as urns to receive the ashes of their dead, four of which, of a green colour, are also in the British Museum. The manufacture of these vessels proves that this nation was well skilled in the arts of blowing and modelling glass; and their designs, which we are now reproducing, show that they were at least not inferior in artistic skill to those who have formed their taste in this highly civilized age. We have no record of glass being used for glazing purposes in ancient times. The Venerable Bede introduced it into this country about 674 A.D., and employed it in the adornment of church windows. Ordinary window glass was made at the works in Crutched Friars in 1557, and plate glass at the large works of the Ravenhead Plate Glass Company, near St. Helen's in Lancashire. About 1776, flint glass vessels were blown at the establishment in the Savoy House; and the second Duke of Buckingham brought over Venetian artists, at that time the most skilled, to make glass for mirrors, carriage windows, and other useful purposes. Their workshop was in Lambeth, and the date of their arrival in this country was 1673. The French were before us in the art of casting glass plates; and in 1688, Stewart commenced this branch of manufacture, which led to the establishment of the very famous works of St. Gobain. England has now large plate glass factories in different parts of the country, and these together yield as their weekly production at least 140,000 superficial feet of the best polished plate, or seven and a quarter millions of feet yearly. The value of plate glass made in England annually, including the rough kinds used for glazing roofs, &c., is estimated at 1,000,000l. France still stands very high, and her plates are extremely perfect in manufacture. St. Marie d'Oignies, in Belgium, also sends a considerable quantity of plate glass into the market. This branch of manufacture has not yet extended to America, which therefore is a large customer of Europe. Formerly, glass making was very heavily taxed in this country, and in 1812 an additional duty was placed on the manufacture of the raw material, which so greatly depressed it, that the income which the State received fell from 328,000l. to 183,000l. per annum. Moreover, large quantities of foreign glass were imported, and this too hindered the development of the industry amongst us. On the repeal of the duty, however, the trade began to increase, and has now reached very large dimensions.
Glass appears to be a mixture of silicates, the nature and chemical composition of which will be explained in a later part of this article.