extensive and very profitable business. New England manufactures
a good share of the flint-glass which is made in America, and which
I may say, without boasting, is equal to any in the world. Our
window-glass is made mostly in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
It does n't pay to manufacture that except where fuel is cheap."
"Is n't it wonderful?" said Lawrence, taking
up a goblet. "In that piece of glass are white sand, and red-lead,
and pearlash, and saltpetre, neither of them transparent by itself,
and yet here they are all transparent! It does seem a sort of magic
that has made them invisible."
"There are many wonderful things connected
with glass," said the gaffer. "It will not tarnish. Only one acid
has any effect upon it. It is one of the most brittle substances,
and yet one of the most elastic. A hollow glass ball can be made
that will rebound half the distance to your hand if you drop it on an
anvil."
Lawrence said he should like such a ball as
that; but when told that it was pretty sure to break at the second
or third rebound, he said "Oh!" and cheerfully gave it up.
"It makes the finest sounding bells," said
the Doctor, "and musical glasses are made of it that are played by
merely rubbing them with the moist fingers. It will condense moisture
from the air more quickly than any of the metals."
"There is another curious thing," said the
gaffer. "Drop a ball of melted glass in water, and you 'd think
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