Today's curiosity: why does everyone have an enamel basin in their childhood memories?

it is said that everyone has had such an enamel basin at home:

not only that, but there are many enamel utensils in childhood memories: enamel washbasin with red carp, enamel spittoon with happy words, dark green enamel spoon, and the most classic white enamel teapot.

what on earth is enamel? Why does it come into thousands of families, and why does it fade out of our lives?

what, the enamel is enamel?

Enamel (Enamel) is a process of firing vitreous glaze on the surface of metal materials, which can provide protection and decoration at the same time. Steel plate, cast iron, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, gold and silver, and other materials can be covered with this kind of glaze, and the enamel utensils in our life are usually steel or cast iron.

Enamel and enamel are actually of the same nature, but people are used to calling practical products enamel and decorative handicrafts fired by similar processes as enamel.

(you can also call it copper video for the fired enamel bowl just taken out of the furnace)

how is the enamel made?

when making enamel products, we must first use some method to make the glaze powder adhere evenly to the surface of the utensils. For example, the glaze can be made into a paste, the utensils can be immersed in it, and then dried, or the glaze can be sprayed to the surface by methods such as Static adsorption. The raw materials for making enamel glazes usually contain quartz sand, feldspar, soda ash, borax, and other ingredients, as well as white or other color colorants (mostly metal oxides). After, the utensils should be fired. At high temperatures, the powdered glaze melts together to form a uniform glaze layer. The process of coating and firing may be repeated many times.

the industrial revolution brought enamel into life

the process of firing glass layers on metal has a long history, and the earliest enamel decoration dates back to the 13th century BC. The earliest enamel process was used in gold ornaments, and then it was used on silver and bronze surfaces. In ancient times, decorative enamel has developed complex and exquisite techniques (such as cloisonne pinch enamel), but they have not entered public life.

(Byzantine gold enamel ornaments, made around 1080-1120 | cscottblue.com)

the practical enamel utensils we are familiar with have sprung up since the Industrial Revolution. Technological progress has brought a large number of lower-cost and better-performing steel, which has been made not only into production machines but also into a variety of daily necessities. Enamel happens to be a good partner of iron and steel, it can cover iron with a durable and stable protective layer, and solve the problem that steel is easy to rust. At the same time, the enamel glaze can also make the ironware smooth, easy to clean, more beautiful, and heat-resistant.

in the mid-19th century, mass-produced enamel utensils began to appear on the market. People's life gradually appeared with enamel cooking utensils, enamel cast iron bathtubs, enamel signboards, and other items. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, industrial enamel products began to be introduced into China. In 1916, the Englishman Mcleay and Chinese businessman Xu Daosheng jointly established an enamel daily necessities factory in Shanghai, which was the first enamel factory in China. After the founding of New China, enamel factories and products have been further popularized throughout the country.

how did the pattern on the enamel basin come from?

in addition to protection, the enamel is also very suitable for adding all kinds of colored glaze decoration. How is the pattern made? The more traditional production method in the factory is "spray flower", that is, the objects produced are covered with templates and then sprayed with colored glaze powder.

however, the dust raised during spraying is not conducive to the health of workers, the production efficiency is low, and it is difficult to make very fine patterns, so it was gradually replaced by the decal process. Decal is a process in which the colored glaze pattern is printed on the decal paper by screen printing in advance, and then transferred to the surface of utensils for firing.

looking back on the enamel bowls and pots in the past, people may think that the patterns above are all the same, either the slogans of the times and the word "award", or similar patterns, but in fact, there are a lot of changes in enamel patterns. To attract consumers, enamel factories have also made a lot of efforts to design various patterns, some of which are even made by painters.

stainless steel and plastics come from behind

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when iron enamelware first became popular, it can be said to be the best choice for cheap and durable materials, but now we are familiar with plastic and stainless steel products started much later. The earliest patents on stainless steel were born in 1912, and most of the plastic basins that replaced enamel washbasins were made of polypropylene, a commercial product that only began to emerge in the 1950s.

however, these later materials gradually replaced enamel in daily necessities. Compared with enamel, the production of plastic and stainless steel utensils is simpler and cheaper, it no longer worries about bumping and damaging the protective layer, and avoids the pollution caused by pickling steps in enamel production. In the past, many enamel teapots and enamel washbasins have been replaced by stainless steel and plastic products. With the decline in demand, enamel factories have indeed declined, and since the middle and late 1990s, state-owned enamel factories have stopped production one after another [5].

however, enamel has not disappeared, and the process has been developing all the time. Compared with the past, more high-end, exquisite enamel products are still active in the market, such as those cast iron enamel pots. Moreover, in addition to daily life, enamel has other important uses... For example, acid-alkali corrosion-resistant and heat-resistant enamel are very suitable for making industrial reaction vessels.