Also 8 kaulin, 9 kaoline. [a. F. kaolin, ad. Chinese kao-, kau-ling, name of a mountain (f. kao high + ling hill) northwest of the town of King-tê-chên in North China, whence the material was orig. obtained.
The ‘matière appelée kao-lin’ was made known in Europe in 1712 by Father d’Entrecolles, ‘Lettre sur la fabrication de la porcellaine à King-le-ching’ (in Lettres édifiantes, &c. des missions étrangères, III. 210). His F. spelling approximately represented the Chinese word, which would be better expressed in Eng. by kaüling or kauwling.]
A fine white clay produced by the decomposition of feldspar, used in the manufacture of porcelain; first employed by the Chinese, but subsequently obtained also in Cornwall, Saxony, France (near Limoges), United States, etc.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., The first earth, called Kaulin, is beset with glittering corpuscles. Ibid. (1753), Suppl., s.v., Persons who have been at the China works, say, that the porcelain is made of equal quantities of petuntse and kaolin.
1807. C. W. Janson, Stranger in Amer., 229. Different kinds of clay are found here [in the prairies], among which it is believed, is the real kaolin, to which the porcelain of China owes its reputation.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 404. Decomposed white felspar, or kaolin, produced from the granite rocks of Cornwall.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., vii. 130. Fine impalpable clay known as Kaolin or China clay.
attrib. 1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, I. 809. Most of the kaolin-clays contain some spangles of mica.
