Short answers, pulled from the story.
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between 1200 and 1400 degrees Celsius. Its strength and translucence come from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at those temperatures. Other raw materials can include feldspar, ball clay, glass, bone ash, steatite, quartz, petuntse, and alabaster.
Porcelain originated in China, the result of centuries of ceramic experimentation. Proto-porcelain wares date from the Shang dynasty of 1600 to 1046 BCE, and by the Eastern Han dynasty of 25 to 220 CE these wares had developed into high-fired porcelain. The requirements of whiteness and translucency were achieved by the late Sui and early Tang dynasties.
Porcelain divides into three main categories: hard-paste, soft-paste, and bone china. The categories differ in the composition of the body and in the firing conditions. Hard-paste was invented in China, soft-paste began as a European attempt to copy Chinese porcelain, and bone china was developed in England in 1748.
Credit for the European discovery of porcelain is traditionally given to Johann Friedrich Bottger, who reported to Augustus II in March 1709 that he could make it. Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus produced the first hard, white, translucent specimen in 1708 but died in October of that year. The Meissen factory was established in 1710.
Porcelain is referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries because it was first seen in imports from China during the 17th century. The European name porcelain comes from the old Italian porcellana, meaning cowrie shell, because of its resemblance to the surface of the shell.
Porcelain is used for electrical insulators in power transmission, for chemical laboratory ware such as reaction vessels and Buchner funnels, for floor tiles, and for dental crowns, bridges, and veneers. It has insulated electrical lines since at least 1878. In 2018 a porcelain bushing insulator made by NGK in Japan was certified as the world's largest ceramic structure, standing 11.3 metres tall.