glass is melted and brought before a fierce blast, which blows it into
delicate shreds, white and soft, that make a fire and rat proof filling
for walls and floors. Exposure to great heat and gradual cooling devitrifies
glass, transforming it to "Réaumur's porcelain," opaque and crockery-like.
"Soluble glass" is a highly alkaline solution of quartz, potash, and
charcoal, which is applied to textures in theatres to preserve them from
flames. If fire touches them it melts the invisible minerals into a glaze,
which excludes air and prevents combustion.
The future of the glass industry in the United
States is encouraging, for it is only since the war that the manufacture
of polished plate has grown up; and there are now running, or building,
enough furnaces to supply all that will be used in the country. It is
within the last ten years that the manufacture of cathedral and rough plate
has been thoroughly established, at first disputing and now controlling
the home market against England and Belgium. The improvement in window-glass
has also been great, and there are workmen and manufacturers who think they
see the rising sun of much better days and a much better American glass.
The concentration of capital in powerful concerns must certainly lead to
changes in the system of labor that are bound to insure a more finished
product. A new glass recently invented in Germany is said to add
marvellously to the power of the microscope. A Yale professor announces
the invention of a perfect acromatic telescope lens.
Legend tells of the lost invention of "malleable
glass." Tiberius is said to have discouraged a genius who found the secret
by beheading him, fearing the innovation would reduce the value of gold.
It is also recorded that Cardinal Richelieu was presented with a bust of
malleable glass by a chemist, who purposely let it fall into fragments, and
mended it before his eyes with a hammer. The inventor was promptly rewarded
by perpetual imprisonment, lest his ingenuity should ruin the "vested
interests" of French manufacturers. But if glass may not ape the metals
in malleability, it may imitate them in another respect just as important.
A more fortunate Frenchman (M. de la Bastie) has within a few years introduced
into Europe a transmuted glass which, he claims, may displace cast-iron.
If it fulfils his expectations it will mark a new era in glass,
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and the old adage "as brittle as glass" will be
superseded by a new one, "as tough as glass." By his process railway
sleepers, fence posts, drain pipes, tanks, etc., are cast in moulds, and
so toughened by a bath in oils as to be stronger than iron, though much
lighter, and costing one-third as much. But it is questioned whether his
results reach what is claimed for the process. These undeveloped toughening
processes augur astounding changes in the future of glass. "Glass houses"
may become the fashion, and we would have to reverse our proverb about
them, for they would be bomb-proof. Already transparent glass bricks are
made. Extending the possibilities of glass a little further, why may we
not build the entire structure of glass? The walls might be cemented
blocks cast like hewn stone, but translucent, and of any color. One could
thus inhabit a huge pile of amber or of gigantic gems. The windows could
be multiform, some of them telescopic, bringing distant things near, some
with lenses or mirrors guiding the focussed sun's heat for culinary and
comfortable purposes, others straining out the light or chemic rays.
Tapestries, furniture, and utensils might be made of the universal
material. The whole would be more endurable than granite. No fire could
harm it; lightening would shun it. Such a dream, blossoming from this
miraculous substance, may be realized by an Aladdin whose lamp is of glass.
AUTHORITIES.--The government Report on the
Manufacture of Glass, by Joseph D. Weeks, 1880, is the best summary
of the industrial history and condition of glass at the last census.
Le Verre, son histoire, sa fabrication, E. Peligot, Paris, 1878,
is the most comprehensive work; Guide de Verrier, G. Bontemps,
Paris, 1868, is the technical guide to the manufacturer; Curiosities
of Glass-making, H. Pellat, London, 1849, Marvels of Glass-making,
A. Sanzay, London, 1869 (from the French), and Treatise on the Origin,
Improvement, and Present State of the Manufacture of Porcelain and Glass,
London, 1852, are the best English text-books. Glass, by Alexander
Nesbitt, London, 1878, the hand-book of the South Kensington series, is the
authority on glass history; Mr. Nesbitt is also the author of the historical
chapter on Glass in the Encyclopædia Britannica. See also the
encyclopædias; "Glass-making," by Professor C. H. Henderson, in the
Journal of the Franklin Institute, September, 1887; and Harper's
Magazine, Vol. XLVIII., p. 320 ("Some Notes about Pottery and
Porcelain," by William C. Prime); Vol. L., p. 386 ("Glass-making," by E.
H. Knight); Vol. LIX., p. 655 ("Painted Glass in Household Decoration,"
by Charles A. Cole).
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