Science and Civilisation in China Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 12, Ceramic Technology

Needham Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China Vol. 5 Chemistry and Chemical Technology - Part 12 Ceramic Technology 2004 [pdf 486sc 918c. 56.24mb]How were Chinese pots made, glazed and fired? Why did China discover porcelain more than 1,000 years before the West? What are the effects of China's influence on world ceramics? These questions (and many more) are answered in this history of Chinese ceramic technology, from the late Stone Age to the twenty-first century AD. The non-specialist reader will appreciate its unique coverage of research materials originally published in several languages. How were Chinese pots made, glazed and fired? Why did China discover porcelain more than one thousand years before the West? What are the effects of China's influence on world ceramics? These questions and many more are answered in this lavishly-illustrated history of Chinese ceramic technology. The scene is set through the use of historical texts, archaeological excavation, and the principles of ceramic science. Chapters follow on the formation of clays and their relation to the underlying geologies of China, on firing, on manufacturing methods and sequences, on glazes, pigments and gilding, and on the impact of Chinese ceramic technology around the world, from the seventh to the twenty-first centuries. This is a volume unique in its coverage, which brings together research materials in several languages for the first time The main subject of this book, as part of the series concerned with a scientific record of China, is the history of Chinese ceramic technology.