Then, as the temperature increased further still to 1300°C and the whole kiln became white hot, the magic would have started to happen: some of the atoms flowing between their crystals would have turned into a river of glass. Now they were mostly solid, but also part liquid. It would have been as if the cups had blood running through their veins in the form of liquid glass. This liquid would have flowed into all the small pores between the crystals and coated all the surfaces. Now, unlike almost all other types of ceramic, the cups would have felt what it was like to be free of defects.
