XI.
OTHER CURIOUS MATTERS.
Lawrence said he had read that glass mirrors were
modern, and that the ancients used polished metal instead. "The Romans
for window-panes used sheets of mica. Yet glass-making," said he, "was a
very ancient art."
"So ancient," said the Doctor, coming in just then,
"that in Egypt glass ornaments have been discovered on mummies that were
buried three thousand years ago; and on their monuments are still to be
seen hieroglyphics, or picture writings, which represents glass-blowers at
work in the same way, and with the same kinds of tools, as modern
glass-blowers. The inhabitants of Tyre were famous glass-makers, after
them the Romans, and after them the Venetians. It was the Venetians that
introduced the art to modern Europe."
"The Germans brought it to this country," said the
gaffer. "A company of them started a factory at Quincy, in Massachusetts,
before the Revolution, but it did n't succeed. Mr. Hewes, a Boston
merchant, next tried it. His glass-blowers were nearly all Hessians,
deserters from the British army. He set up his works in the woods of New
Hampshire, where fuel was cheap. But it was n't till after the beginning
of the present century that glass-making began to prosper in this country.
It has now becomes a very
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