China, ceramic history

Being materials older than metals and materials that had experienced unequalled aesthetic and technical successes before metals (the porcelains of China), ceramics become more interesting, even in their latest forms, when observed from a viewpoint that does not exclude history. We have therefore presented ancient ceramics (Chapter 2), as well as silicate ceramics - ceramics that are wrongly described as traditional , a term which could conceal the permanent innovations that they imdergo (Chapter 4). 

Publications Lectures in and outside Europe. More than 120 publications in ceramics journals of Germany, South Africa, Czech Republic, USA, Sweden, Spain, The Netherlands about extmsion, product development, cordierite, vitreous china, tile production, advanced ceramics, market research, ceramics education and history of ceramics technology... 

Ceramic materials have been made since well before the dawn of recorded history. They are generally fashioned from clay or other natural earths at room temperature and then permanently hardened by heat. Silicate ceramics include objects made from clays, such as pottery, bricks, and table china. The three major ingredients of common pottery are clay (from weathering of feldspar as described previously), sand (silica), and feldspar (aluminosilicates). Clays mixed with water form a moldable paste because they consist of many tiny silicate sheets that can easily slide past one another. When the clay-water mixture is heated, the water is driven off, and new Si—O—Si bonds are formed so that the mass of platelets becomes permanently rigid. 

China is the fatherland of porcelain technolo [85]. The history of ceramics in China started from ten thousand years ago. Since East Han Dynasty Chinese ceramic workers had mastered the technology of porcelain production. 

Li, J. Z. (1998). The history of Science and Technology of China, History of Chinese ceramics, 22, Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese). 

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