the manufacture of earthen ware, or the art of making earthen vessels. See Delft-Ware, Stone-Ware, and Porcelain.

The wheel and lathe are the chief and almost the only instruments in pottery: the first for large works, and the last for small. The potters-wheel consists principally in the nut, which is a beam or axis, whose foot or pivot plays perpendicularly on a free-stone sole or bottom. From the four corners of this beam, which does not exceed two feet in height, arise four iron bars, called the spokes of the wheel; which forming diagonal lines with the beam, defend, and are fastened at bottom to the edges of a strong wooden circle, four feet in diameter, perfectly like the felloes of a coach-wheel, except that it has neither axle nor radius, and is only joined to the beam, which serves it as an axis by the iron bars. The top of the nut is flat, of a circular figure, and a foot in diameter: and on this is laid the clay which is to be turned and fashioned. The wheel thus disposed, is encompassed with four sides of four different pieces of wood fastened on a wooden frame; the hind-piece, which is that on which the workman sits, is made a little inclining towards the wheel; on the fore-piece are placed the prepared earth; on the side-pieces he rests his feet, and these are made inclining to give him more or less room. Having prepared the earth, the potter lays a round piece of it on the circular head of the nut, and fitting down turns the wheel with his feet till it has got the proper velocity; then, wetting his hands with water, he presses his fist or his fingers-ends into the middle of the lump, and thus forms the cavity of the vessel, continuing to widen it from the middle; and thus turning the inside into form with one hand, while he proportions the outside with the other, the wheel constantly turning all the while, and he wetting his hands from time to time. When the vessel is too thick, he uses a flat piece of iron, somewhat sharp on the edge, to pare off what is redundant; and when it is finished, it is taken off from the circular head, by a wire passed under the vessel.

The potters-lathe is also a kind of wheel, but more simple and slight than the former; its three chief members are an iron beam or axis three feet and a half high, and two feet and a half diameter, placed horizontally at the top of the beam, and serving to form the vessel upon; and another larger wooden wheel, all of a piece, three inches thick, and two or three feet broad, fastened to the same beam at the bottom, and parallel to the horizon. The beam or axis turns by a pivot at the bottom in an iron stand. The workman gives the motion to the lathe with his feet, by pushing the great wheel alternately with each foot, still giving it a greater or lesser degree of motion as his work requires. They work with the lathe, with the same instruments, and after the same manner, as with the wheel. The mouldings are formed by holding a piece of wood or iron cut in the form of the moulding to the vessel, while the wheel is turning round; but the feet and handles are made by themselves and set on with the hands; and if there be any sculpture in the work, it is usually done in wooden moulds, and stuck on piece by piece on the outside of the vessel. For the glazing of the work, see Glazing.

POTTEL, an English measure containing two quarts.