bench, as before, and, turning it rapidly under his hand, pushed the
point of one blade of his sheep-shears, or "tools," into the hole left
by the knocked-off button. Having opened it a little, he inserted
both points, and gradually enlarged the hole, now to the size of a
penny, now to that of a dollar, and lastly to that of a little tin cap
that he fitted to a rim, which, in working, he had turned outward
upon the edge of the glass. He used the cap as a measure, and it was
laid aside when the rim was found to be of the right circumference.
It was less than a minute's work, and that end of the gourd was
finished. But it was no longer a gourd; it was a lamp-chimney.
Another boy now came forward with another iron
rod, closely resembling the blowing-pipe, except that it had no hole
through it.
"That is what we call a ponty or
pontil," said the gaffer.
On the end of the ponty was a little wheel of
red-hot glass. Applied to the bottom of the lamp-chimney, it fitted
the opening. The workman then touched the top of the chimney, where it
joined the blowing-pipe, with cold steel, and cracked it off. The
chimney was then taken away, sticking to the glass wheel on the end
of the ponty.
"That is what we call reversing it,"
said the gaffer.
The top of the chimney was now heated at the
glory-hole, as the bottom had previously been, and afterwards, when
soft, smoothed and shaped by the
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