Josiah Wedgewood and the Industrial Revolution
1865
Josiah Wedgewood was the youngest of twelve children. His family owned the Churchyard Pottery. When his father died, his oldest brother inherited the family business. After a five year apprenticeship, Josiah began his own work. His goal was to discover the secret of porcelain and to make a clay that could be used as tableware. Through meticulous experimentation, he created a non-porous clay to which color could be added. Although Wedgewood is most famous for the blue and white pottery which bears his name, he is also credited with the industrialization of pottery. He successfully devised both factory equipment and production methods.

Illustration from:
The Wedgewoods: Being a Life of Josiah Wedgewood; with Notices of His Works and Their Productions, Memoirs of the Wedgewood and Other Families, and a History of the Early Potteries of Staffordshire by Llewellyn Frederick William Jewitt. Published in London by Virtue Bros. and Co., 1865.