WEBVTT - Short Stuff: All About Porcelain 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.320 Hey, and welcome to Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:09.720 Chuck and it's just us. But it's short Stuff and Chuck. 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:15.280 This is the last episode of twenty twenty five. 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.160 That's right, and that's it. 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:19.439 That's all I had to say about that. 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:24.000 All right, Well, let's talk porcelain, because porcelain isn't something 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.520 I really knew much about until I. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:27.240 Did this research. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.400 And porcelain, as it turns out, you might know this 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:31.800 you might not, is a type of ceramic. It's a 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:35.560 subset of ceramics. What they are both made of clay, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.199 and they're both kiln fired, but porcelain clay has a 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:44.240 much higher density and it's fired longer and at higher temperatures, 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:50.839 and fussy, is much more durable, has very high performance characteristics, 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:56.080 and it's you know, porcelain is that super hard mixing 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.320 bowl that you got from your grandmother that like you 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.160 can't break, you can break them, but just super hardy, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.240 super dense, non porous clay like material. 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.920 Yeah, I guess I haven't had much experience with porcelain 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:10.880 because I always thought of it as very delicate and 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.039 highly breakable, but apparently that's not true. And once I 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:16.640 thought about it a little bit. It's like, actually, I 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:21.039 have lifetime experience with porcelain in the form of a toilet, 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:23.280 but I hadn't really thought about that. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.040 Yeah, toilets. Yeah, they don't break. 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.160 Try it, you can't do it. So there's three things 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.840 that show up in any kind of porcelain, and it's 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.400 all natural. That's one of the big attractions of porcelain too. 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.320 It's clay, quartz, and feldspar, which is a kind of 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.800 rocket that can form from all sorts of different stuff. 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:45.600 And there's all sorts of other stuff you can throw in. 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.600 But depending on the kind of porcelain that you come 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.280 up with, it's basically dependent on the materials you use, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:57.360 the raw materials, and then how high a temperature and 0:01:57.400 --> 0:01:59.760 how long you fire it for in the kiln. Those 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.600 are the big variables that produce different kinds of porcelain. 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.040 But probably the most common material that's used is called kalin, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.280 which is a kind of clay that's almost white. And 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.600 this is like the big money porcelain clay. 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:14.440 Yeah, and that's usually going to be like that mixing 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.760 bowl like tableware is usually that kalin, very very fine 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:23.200 particle size. It's super durable, like we were talking about, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.680 and not permeable by any liquid. 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:27.400 Just try it again. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:32.520 And you know, when we're talking firing temperatures, we'll get 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.320 to a couple of different kinds of porcelain, but it 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.960 can go up to twenty three hundred degrees fahrenheit about 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.280 twelve sixty celsius. And it kind of just depends on 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.320 the what you're making it for, like is it a 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.480 toilet or is it a mixing bowl or is it 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:46.160 fine China. 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.280 And one other thing about porcelain too that I hadn't 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.520 realized is that some kinds of it are translucent. And 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.239 I was like, wait, that means kind of see through, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.440 and I looked up pictures of it, and yes, you 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.560 can hold porcelain up to a light, like in your hand, 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.360 and you can see the silhouette of your hand on 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:02.200 the other side of it. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.600 Did you know that, Yeah, because I've worked with porcelain 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.280 tile where you can do that a lot of time. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.160 Flortyle can be porcelain. But this all originated in China 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.520 about two thousand years ago during the Tang dynasty. But 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.600 it wasn't like the porcelain we know. It was basically like, hey, 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.600 we put out our fire, and they discovered this really hard, unbroken, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.440 solid pieces of stuff, and that was just rudimentary porcelain. 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:31.880 Later in the Yuan dynasty, it's about seven hundred, eight 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.320 hundred years later, is when they really developed the porcelains. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.440 We know it the porcelain that Marco Polo found and 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.680 brought back to Europe, and they were just went wild 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:42.840 for this stuff. 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.160 They did, and the market for porcelain opened up pretty 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.720 quickly because trade routes were open thanks to Marco Polo. 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.920 But the Europeans could not figure out how their Chinese 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.960 friends were making this stuff. So all of the porcelain 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.480 coming into Europe was foreign mate made in China. And 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.680 that's why a lot of porcelain tablewhear is called China 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.760 because it was kind of like the like Champagne is 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.880 the sparkling wine. China was to porcelain right, and it 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.479 took them quite a couple hundred years, I think before 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.560 they finally cracked the code. And it was an alchemist 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.000 who figured out how to make porcelain by basically reverse 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.000 engineering a piece that he had from China. 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:32.080 Yeah, a German alchemist, Johann Friedrich Brutgue, and he figured 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.360 it out. This was in I guess the eighteenth century 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.279 and by the latter half of the eighteenth century. In 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.440 the seventeen seventies they found that Cowlin clay in Cornwall, England, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.000 and so the Brits were like, we can start making 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.159 this stuff. Finally we've got we got the good stuff 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.120 right here in Cornwall. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.320 Is it Cowlin like Shaolin? 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:52.720 I don't know. 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.240 I like how you said it, Wow, how'd you say 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.839 it Kalin like Kalin or Calin? 0:04:58.160 --> 0:04:58.560 I don't know. 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:01.560 So Yeah, the Britz are like, great, we can put 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.479 all this together thanks to Booker and Cornwall and start 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.400 making our own porcelain. And I'm not quite sure. I 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:14.000 get the impression that China made it its porcelain one 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.000 of two ways, and the way that they mostly made 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.200 their porcelain was through hard paste, and that the other 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.040 one is soft paste. And it has to do with 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:26.560 the density of the raw materials you're using, and then 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.480 how high a temperature you fire it at and for 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.760 how long. Like I was talking about before, these are 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.320 basically the two types, two main categories of porcelain. 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:36.800 Yeah, and I think you're right. 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.960 I think the Europeans use that soft paste a little 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.480 more so it's a little more prone to chipping. It's 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.680 a little grainier, just not as hearty overall. And then 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:48.720 you got a glaze of stuff after you fire it. 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.720 But the glazing I thought, you know, because I didn't 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.520 know anything about this stuff, I thought the glazing might 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.560 be kind of the final key to make it in 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.240 permeable to liquids. Me too, but really has nothing to 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.960 do with it. It's all right, impermeable. The glazing is 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:02.680 just decorative. 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.400 Yeah, it's impermeable because it vitrifies, so like the the 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:11.000 glass glass like materials become glass in it, so it's 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:16.040 like kind of glassy. Really good porcelain is. So I say, Chuck, 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.599 we take a little break and come back and talk 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:41.040 some more about porcelain. What do you think. Let's do it, Chuck. 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.320 I'd like to share something that I learned in our 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.039 Dolls episode that I didn't have a chance to fit in, 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:47.919 but now I do, because it seems like all of 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.039 our episodes are now interlocking for some reason. But unglazed 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:53.400 porcelain is called. 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:58.760 Bisc bisk okay, it like b I s q u. 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:03.599 E, exactly like a tomato, shrimp, lobster, lobster. That's the 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:04.720 money one, sure. 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.400 Although a lot of times that stuff's lang astino. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.640 You know, I didn't know that. 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.320 Yeah, I mean, if you go to like a really 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:14.880 high price seafood restaurant, it'll be real lobster. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.440 But that lango is a pretty good sub. 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:18.640 Is that a rock lobster langostina? 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.280 No, it's I think it's just like a little tiny 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.960 a little tiny guy like. I mean, it looks like 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.480 lobster meat, but it's they're little, you know, it's like 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:30.400 a shrimp size. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.680 Oh okay, okay, yeah, I've seen those before. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.320 I've never seen a langostina though, now that you mentioned, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:37.320 I've never looked that up. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.520 I think I see what the creature looks like. 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.080 Yeah, i'd like to see that too. I've only seen 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.600 it dead. I think that's what grabs everyone's face is 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.960 in Beetle Juice and during the Calypso scene. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.000 All right, Well, I mentioned earlier before they break about 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.960 porcelain tile. It's very hearty tile for a flooring or 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.360 the wall, but if you're cutting porcelain tile, you're probably 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.200 gonna need a tile saw. We talked about wet saals 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.880 before they're wet because they are moving at such high 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.440 speeds and drawing so much heat that the water cools 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.080 off that blade. And there's a couple of ways you 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.120 can actually form that tile. If it's up to like 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.520 four feet by four feet, you basically have a special mold. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.600 But anything bigger than that and you're compacting it like 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.200 just pressing layers and layers of ceramic powder until you 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.200 get your desired size. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:31.880 Yeah, with a big old machine. Right. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:33.080 Yes. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.320 So there's a few reasons that people prize porcelain. For one, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.880 it can be really really valuable, as we'll see. But also, 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:44.160 like I said, it's an all natural material, like a 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.000 lot of the glazed colors that they use in glazing 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:52.840 are like cobalt, iron oxide copper, like the raw materials 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.640 are things like clay and feldspar. It's really easy to clean, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.280 as you know with a toilet, very resistant wolden bacterial growth. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.840 As you know with the toilet, it's water resistant, you know, 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.160 like a toilet is. It's good for foot traffic like 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:13.240 a toilet, and it doesn't emit harmful substances like a toilet. 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.360 It can also be recycled, but that is a real 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.280 niche I guess method or technique, like you can't just 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.480 throw porcelain into your single stream recycling can Yeah, you 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:28.520 have to go seek out somebody who recycles it. But 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.000 the very fact that it's recyclable gives it kind of 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.080 promise for the future as we get better and better 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.079 creating a circular economy. 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.120 That's right, you mentioned how valuable it can be. The 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.920 world auction record for Chinese porcelain was set about, I 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:48.240 don't know in twenty fourteen when the Mayan Tang chicken 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:53.680 cup was sold for thirty six million dollars. And you 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.080 know why is anything valuable is because there's not many 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.760 of them. It was crafted between fourteen sixty five and 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.840 eighty seven, when porcelain was just peaking at its quality, 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.760 but they were producing the lowest amount, so it's just 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.840 super rare. So that's why it fetched thirty six million. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.199 Yes, And that also points something out about porcelain too, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:14.960 is if you take good care of it, it's so 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.839 durable it can last thousands of years, so at least 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.800 a thousand years as far as we know. And there's 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.840 like people are into porcelain, like collecting tableware or vases 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.840 or things like that, and so there's like a whole 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.439 world out there available to you to get into born 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:36.880 bone porcelain, hard paste, soft paste, well basically those kind 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.080 And if this thing floated your boat at all, I 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.200 think good luck with your new hobby. 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.880 Yeah for sure. I mean you said bone porcelain. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.959 If you've ever heard bone china, that was something that 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.400 English did, and that's actual bone. They I think when 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.320 they were sort of first searching out how to make 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.680 this stuff, they before they cracked the code, they would 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:57.760 use like eggshell and stuff like that to no avail, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.520 and finally they landed on actual human bone ground down 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:04.320 obviously a very strong thing. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.880 Bone ash would be not from humans, apparently from. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.960 Farm animals, and it would really strengthen that stuff. And 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:14.240 bone china you don't have to fire is how you 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:15.960 can fire at lower temps. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:17.080 It's just not as strong. 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.280 There is no way that in the history of bone china, 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.920 no psycho has made it with human bones. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:28.960 Yeah, that's a good point. Are you enjoying your coffee exactly? 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.200 Oh man, Chuck made me giggle. I mean, short stuff 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:32.600 is out. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.360 Hey wait a minute, can we say goodbye for the year? 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.840 Oh wait, yeah, yes, thank you, Chuck, I say we 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:40.400 do that too. 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:41.840 Goodbye. 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.040 No, in all seriousness, and we want to thank everyone 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.520 for another great year. Somehow here in your seventeen we're 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.160 enjoying things as much or more than we ever have, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.280 which is hard to believe and pretty wonderful for us. 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.600 And you know, big thanks to Dave and Ben and 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:03.280 Jerry of course, and everyone who contributes his writers, you know, 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.080 Julia and Anna and. 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.560 Olivia, Olivia and Dave and Kyle. 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.280 I think that's everybody right now, right it is. Yeah, 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.160 we can thank the grabster for the old days. 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.640 Even there you go, he comes up and selects sometimes 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:17.719 to Doney. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:18.319 Yeah, for sure. 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.559 So I just want to say thanks for everyone for 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.280 keeping us employed and what's for me, the greatest job 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:25.080 in the world means. 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.480 A lot, agreed. I second, Chuck, and yeah, thank you everybody. 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.320 Thanks for another great year, and we'll see you next 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.360 year for another great year. And now with short stuff out, Yeah, 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:37.280 short stuff is out. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.120 Stuff you should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.800 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:47.960 Apple Podcasts 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:54.240 Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.