It is not so apt to crack as the cut glass is, besides being so much
cheaper. You may usually know pressed glass by this little seam on each
side, left by the crease in the moulds; though from some articles it is
burnished off."
IX.
COLORING AND SILVERING.
From the cutting-room Lawrence found his was to
the lamp-room, where he saw a number of girls at work cementing the
bodies and feet of lamps together, and putting on the brass collars.
Farther on he found men screwing the lamp-tops on, and fitting the metallic
tops of other ware, such as pepper-boxes, "mustards," and sirup-pitchers;
thence he went on to the mould-room, where the patterns were made and the
moulds finished after they were brought from the foundry.
He finally inquired his way to the private room
of the gaffer, whom he found sitting at a work-bench, watching what looked
like a strip of copper or brass doubled up in a transparent bottle half
filled with water.
"What are you doing to that old hoop?" asked
Lawrence.
"That old hoop," said the gaffer, "is pure gold,
enough to buy you a small farm. I am eating it up."
"Eating it up?" said Lawrence, laughing. "I
don't see it."
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