personal finance J li Circumstances such as these must have tempted the next generation to drop the business. It was in fact taken over by the second Josiah's third son, Francis, whose real interests seem to have lain with men like Kossuth and John Stuart  Mill, rather than the making of pots, but who nevertheless proved himself a manager of great stature. There was more mechanization-scientific laboursaving devices were introduced, a filter press for drying clay, blungers for mixing, and pug mills for preparing it for the potters. Several coloured clay bodies, still popular today, were introduced. The taste of the sixties and seventies was mediocre and demanded great elaboration, which was not in the rather austere and elegant Wedgwood tradition. In the realm of design, therefore, Francis had to break new ground, and although most of his products conformed to the taste of his day, he was responsible for one particularly interesting experiment that of employing the artist Emile Lessore, in 1858. By this time the artist and the potting craftsmen were drifting apart and aesthetic standards suffered accordingly. Lessore, however, painted directly on to specially thrown pieces. Francis perhaps had that almost uncanny Wedgwood instinct for anticipating trends to come. For although Les sore's contribution made only a negligible difference to the firm's turnover, his appointment antidated by only three years the formation of William Morris's company of artist craftsmen, the date which is usually taken as marking the modern conception of applied industrial design. Francis was a radical he is reputed to have bought land in different parts of the country in order to have more votes to support the great Reform Bill and he was responsible for considerable advances in labour relations during this critical period of the growth of the trade unions and factory legislation. He controlled the business from 1843 to 1870; during that time it flourished and the number of workpeople increased from about 400 to 700. The rest of the century was a period of hanging on. The fourth generation was not very successful and it was left to the fifth, which entered from about 1903, to start tackling the problem of modernizing the works. Cecil and Frank Wedgwood worked devotedly for many years without even a salary. The high costs of outmoded machinery and the intricate hand processes which were still necessary to produce the desired standard of quality were having a serious effect on the home market, and the First World War put an end to the hitherto important export trade to Europe. In 1906 Kennard Wedgwood went to New York, and opened a small branch office, which was to manage the sole selling agency for the U.S.A. It must be remembered that all this, and the modernization of the factory, was being carried out with very little capital, and that from 1895, when the firm was incorporated as a private limited company, until 1917 no dividend was paid on either the ordinary or the preference shares. personal finance