
Up: Glassmaking

Reminiscences 48 of 123
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that, as late as the time of Louis XIII., an inventor having presented to
Cardinal Richelieu a specimen of malleable
glass of his own manufacture, he was rewarded by a sentence of perpetual
imprisonment, lest the "vested interest" of French glass manufacturers
might be injured by the discovery. Even at the present day the error
is a popular one, that if the art of making glass malleable were made
known, it would have the effect of closing nearly all the existing
glass-works; while the truth is, that quite the reverse would be the
result. Whenever the art of making glass malleable is made known,
it will assuredly multiply the manufacture to a tenfold degree.
It was formerly the
custom for the workmen, in setting pots in the glass-furnace, to protect
themselves from the heat by dressing in the skins of wild animals from
head to foot; to this "outre" garb were added glass goggle-eyes, and thus
the most hideous-looking monsters were readily presented to the eye.
Show was then made of themselves in the neighborhood, to the infinite
alarm of children, old women, and others. This always occurred, with
other mysterious doings, on the occasion of setting the pot, or any
other important movement attendant on
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