Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/127

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[115]

their mills, and erected one upon the proper scale at Derby.

Carr's porcelain manufactory (lately belonging to Mr. Dewsbury) is carried on by a process precisely similar to that at Worcester, except that the ware here is rather lighter and more transparent than at the latter place. The biscuit pieces or white ware, also, are made at Derby, surpassing in beauty and delicacy any thing in the whole world of the same kind. The method followed for the purpose is this:— The proper materials being reduced to a liquid of the consistence of thick cream, a sufficient quantity of this is poured into moulds made of plaster of Paris. The water contained in the mixture is quickly absorbed by the plaster, and a crust left, sufficiently hard and tenacious to be turned out of the mould. This is then dried and trimmed, and joined to the other parts of the figure, whatever it maybe; for all the patterns are composed of various pieces, formed in separate moulds. The article is then sent to the kiln, from whence it comes out white as snow. This is the only manufactory of the kind in the town, and employs between two and three hundred men.

The largest marble work belongs to Brown and Co. where forty journeymen are employed in cutting, smoothing, and polishing marble; and manu-

VOL. I.
I