china clay

Porcelain is a reminder that the drive to create new types of matter has long played a powerful role in human history.

Kaolin.

The initial steps toward porcelain occurred when potters in northern China started to tinker with an unusual clay, chalk-colored and fine-grained, called kaolin.

Kaolin was known for its color, useful in paints, coatings, and fillers.

Potters learned that subjecting this soft, white, unremarkable-looking mud to extreme temperatures produced startling effects.

Ordinary clay looks like amorphous glop but actually is composed of huge numbers of microscopic crystals.

When clay is cooked in a kiln, the hydroxyl groups vibrate and break free, causing the plates to fall apart and reform into long, needle-shaped crystals that lock together into a sturdy structure.

Meanwhile, the free hydroxyls merge, becoming water molecules that steam away in the hot kiln, leaving behind oxygen in the new crystals.

They're useful for acute gastroenteritis, um, um, when you're f- you know, you've got toxins 'cause you've got the wrong microbes in the gut fermenting away and producing toxins.

And of course, the classical treatment for gastroenteritis is kaolin and morphine.

Kaolin, the clay, mops up the toxins.

Morphine slows the gut down and makes it less irritable.

So I don't use clays very much these days now that I've got this wonderful tool of MSM.