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Porcelain's path
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In ancient times, almost every household in Yao Li village made porcelain, so the porcelain industry there was very prosperous. However, due to wars in the Northern Song Dynasty, many craftsmen fled south, and some of them went to Jingdezhen. Therefore, Yao Li had ceded as China's capital of porcelain to Jingdezhen.
A nearby babbling brook powers a pressing machine. The current of the stream alone is nowhere near strong enough to power the machine, so that's why a wedge was placed to create exponentially more water pressure. The water is forced to go through a smaller area and increases the pressure enough to spin a wheel.
In the center of the wheel is an axel, which also spins. The axel has spokes attached to it, which lift up the hammers with each spin. Thanks to gravity, the hammers actually reset themselves. The machine can literally go on forever and doesn't require any fuel and hardly any maintenance.
Be careful, these hammers pack quite a punch!
The Jingde Zhen kiln is one of the oldest kilns from the Song Dynasty. The first floor is utilized to carry saggars into the kiln before firing and to take them out after firing. The kiln becomes slimmer and more narrow as it approaches the chimney to control temperature. It can also be used to fire different colored glazes, like white and blue. This kiln was chosen by the provincial government as a protected antique as of July of 2000.
