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William Cookworthy
William Cookworthy (12 April 170517 October 1780) was an English Quaker minister, a successful pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like that imported from China. He subsequently discovered china clay in Cornwall.Selleck In 1768 he founded a works at Plymouth for the production of Plymouth porcelain; in 1770 he moved the factory to Bristol, to become Bristol porcelain, before selling it to a partner in 1773. Parents, birth, siblings and early life He was born of Quaker parents in Kingsbridge, Devon on 12 April 1705. His father, also called William, was a weaver and his mother was Edith, the daughter of John and Margaret Debell of St Martin-by-Looe in east Cornwall: they had married in 1704. Their children were: * William – 1705 * Sarah – 1706 * Jacob – 1709 * Susannah – 1711 * Mary – 1714 * Philip – 1716 * Benjamin – 1717 William was a bright child but his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingsbridge
Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the above census was 4,381. It is situated at the northern end of the Kingsbridge Estuary, a ria that extends to the sea six miles south of the town. It is the third largest settlement in the South Hams and is 17 miles (27 km) southwest of Torquay and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Plymouth. History The town formed around a bridge which was built in or before the 10th century between the royal estates of Alvington, to the west, and Chillington, to the east, hence giving it the name of Kyngysbrygge ("King's bridge"). In 1219 W. G. Hoskins, ''Devon'', 1954 the Abbot of Buckfast was granted the right to hold a market there, and by 1238 the settlement had become a borough. The manor remained in possession of the abbot until the Diss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bow Porcelain Factory
The Bow porcelain factory (active c. 1747–64 and closed in 1776) was an emulative rival of the Chelsea porcelain factory in the manufacture of early soft-paste porcelain in Great Britain. The two London factories were the first in England. It was originally located near Bow, in what is now the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, but by 1749 it had moved to "New Canton", sited east of the River Lea, and then in Essex, now in the London Borough of Newham. Designs imitated imported Chinese and Japanese porcelains and the wares being produced at Chelsea, at the other end of London. From about 1753, Meissen figures were copied, both directly and indirectly through Chelsea. Quality was notoriously uneven; the warm, creamy body of Bow porcelains is glassy and the glaze tends towards ivory. The paste included bone ash, and Bow figures were made by pressing the paste into moulds, rather than the slipcasting used at Chelsea. Bow appears to have been the largest English factory of its pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec, which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment for the direction of British overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758). Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, notably on Easter Weekend, on 6 April 1744. His experiences culminated in a "spiritual awakening" in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write ''The Heavenly Doctrine'' to reform Christianity. According to ''The Heavenly Doctrine'', the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on, he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons and other spirits, and that the Last Judgment had already occurred in 1757, the year before the 1758 publication of ''De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti'' (English: ''Concernin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic Lime
Hydraulic lime (HL) is a general term for calcium oxide, a variety of lime also called quicklime, that sets by hydration. This contrasts with calcium hydroxide, also called slaked lime or air lime that is used to make lime mortar, the other common type of lime mortar, which sets by carbonation (re-absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air). Hydraulic lime provides a faster initial set and higher compressive strength than air lime, and hydraulic lime will set in more extreme conditions, including under water. The terms 'hydraulic lime' and 'hydrated lime' are quite similar and may be confused but are not necessarily the same material. Hydrated lime is any lime which has been slaked whether it sets through hydration, carbonation, or both. Calcium reacts in the lime kiln with the clay minerals to produce silicates that enable some of the lime to set through hydration. Any unreacted calcium is slaked to calcium hydroxide which sets through carbonation. These are sometimes called 's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddystone Lighthouse
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 scale The current structure is the fourth to be built on the site. The first lighthouse (Winstanley's) was swept away in a powerful storm, killing its architect and five other men in the process. The second (Rudyard's) stood for fifty years before it burned down. The third (Smeaton's) is renowned because of its influence on lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building; its upper portions were re-erected in Plymouth as a monument. The first lighthouse, completed in 1699, was the world's first open ocean lighthouse, although the Cordouan Lighthouse off the western French coast preceded it as the first offshore lighthouse. The need for a light The Eddystone Rocks are an extensive reef approximately 12 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Smeaton
John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was a British civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed "civil engineer", and is often regarded as the "father of civil engineering".Mark Denny (2007). "Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World". p. 34. JHU Press. He pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate. Smeaton was associated with the Lunar Society. Law and physics Smeaton was born in Austhorpe, Leeds, England. After studying at Leeds Grammar School he joined his father's law firm, but left to become a mathematical instrument maker (working with Henry Hindley), developing, among other instruments, a pyrometer to study material expansion. In 1750, his premises were in the Great Turnstile in Holborn. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1753 and in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Champion Of Bristol
Richard Champion (1743–1791) was an English merchant and porcelain manufacturer, who emigrated to the United States in 1784. Early life Champion was born into a Quaker merchant family from the Bristol area in England, the son of Joseph Champion (1714–1794), a merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Rogers (d. 1745), daughter of the merchant Francis Rogers. Sarah Fox (1745–1811) the diarist, who married the banker Charles Fox of Plymouth, was his sister. His relations Nehemiah and William Champion (metallurgist), William and their predecessors were involved in the manufacture of brass for several generations, initially in partnership with Abraham Darby I, Abraham Darby. Merchant After the death of his mother, Champion moved with his father, Joseph, to London where he received his education. Returning to Bristol around 1762 he worked for another uncle, Richard "Gospel" Champion who was a merchant in the city selling goods to the Caribbean and America. In this post, Richard formed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (3 March 1737 – 19 January 1793) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 until 1784 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford. He was an art connoisseur. Early life Pitt was born and baptised at Boconnoc in Cornwall on 3 March 1737, the son of Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (died 1761), elder brother of William Pitt the Elder. His mother was Christian, eldest daughter of Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, of Hagley. He was admitted fellow-commoner at Clare College, Cambridge, on 7 January 1754, and resided there until 1758. In 1759 Pitt obtained the degree of Master of Arts (MA) '' per literas regias''. Thomas Pitt accompanied Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull, British ambassador to the court of Portugal, on his journey to Lisbon in January 1760. Thomas Gray and his friends contrived that John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, a college companion, should go with him; and Philip Francis, a lifelong friend, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Austell
St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell was a village centred around the parish church, until the arrival of significant tin mining in the 18th century turned it into a town. St Austell is named after the 6th century Cornish saint, St Austol, a disciple of St Mewan. In a Vatican manuscript there is a 10th-century list of Cornish parish saints. This includes Austoll, which means that the church and village existed at that time, shortly after 900. St Austell is not mentioned in Domesday Book (1086). However A. L. Rowse, in his book ''St. Austell: Church, Town, and Parish'', cites records which show a church was dedicated on 9 October 1262 by Bishop Bronescombe, and other records show a church there in 1169, dedicated to "Sanctus Austolus". The current church dates from the 13t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Stephen-in-Brannel
St Stephen-in-Brannel (known locally as ''St Stephen's'' or ''St Stephen'') ( kw, Eglosstefan yn Branel) is a civil parish and village in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. St Stephen village is four miles (6.5 km) west of St Austell on the southern edge of Cornwall's china clay district. The parish also contains the villages of Foxhole, Nanpean, Treviscoe and Whitemoor, and the hamlets of Carpalla, Coombe, Currian Vale, High Street, Hornick, Lanjeth, Stepaside and Terras. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 7,119. An electoral ward also exists simply bearing the name ''St. Stephen''. The population at the same census was 4,772 only. History In medieval times the parish lay within the royal manor of Brannel. St Dennis and St Michael Caerhays were daughter churches. From the 16th century the rectors resided at the latter so that it came to be regarded as the mother church. The manor of Brannel was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) when it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François Xavier D'Entrecolles
François Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664 in Lyon – 1741 in Beijing; Chinese name: 殷弘绪, Yin Hongxu) was a French Jesuit priest, who learned the Chinese technique of manufacturing porcelain through his investigations in China at Jingdezhen with the help of Chinese Catholic converts between 1712 and 1722, during the rule of the Kangxi Emperor.McCabe, p.220''ff'' His observations were published in a long letter in 1712, and carefully studied in several European countries, even though Meissen porcelain was already making hard-paste porcelain in Germany by then. The letter's author was given as Père d'Entrecolles ("Father d'Entrecolles"), and he is still very often referred to as this. Religious career D'Entrecolles entered the Society of Jesus in 1682. He arrived in China in 1698 to become a member of the Jesuit China missions. Initially proselytizing in Jiangxi, he then became Superior General of the French Jesuits in China from 1706 to 1719. D'Entrecolles was then Superior of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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