Pottery — Wedgwood
There are three conditions locally necessary to the manufacture of Earthenware: the first is the presence of coals, the second is the existence of beds of clay and the accessibility of other materials of minor importance, and the third is the requisite labour. The great Wedgwood found these conditions to be mainly fulfilled in the part of North Staffordshire now called Stoke-upon-Trent, and with an enterprise, an industry, and a perseverance which is appreciated there, set on foot a manufacture which has now become a staple, and employs, directly or indirectly, upwards of 100,000 of the population of this country, and which is at this time one of the most important articles of our commercial interchange.
Where there is coal there is generally iron, and iron works and earthenware manufactories naturally and unavoidably engender smoke; but although the inhabitants of the Potteries have refused to accept any compulsory measure, which, if recklessly carried out, might completely annihilate their trade and deprive of employment the vast number of the inhabitants of the district, yet there is no place where greater efforts have been made by private individuals voluntarily to adopt measures for the suppression of what they admit to be an evil, not in any degree to the extent set forth.
The first use of flint in pottery has been thus explained. A potter named Astbury, travelling to London, perceived something amiss with one of his horse’s eyes, when an ostler at Dunstable said he could cure him, and for that purpose put a common black flint into the fire. The potter observing it when taken out to be of a fine white, immediately conceived the idea of improving his ware by the addition of this material to the clay.