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Reminiscences 68 of 123
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projectors with promises of the most flattering success, but realized
only disappointment and loss.
In enumerating all the concerns, companies, and
corporations that have been engaged in the manufacture of flint-glass
in the Atlantic Sates, we find the number to be forty-two; of which number
two concerns have retired, and ten are now in operation, viz., two at East
Cambridge, three at South Boston, one at Sandwich, three near New York City,
and one at Philadelphia; leaving two concerns who retired with property,
and twenty-eight out of the forty-two concerns entire failures, involving
the parties interested in heavy loss, the fate of the existing ten to be
determined by future events.
Before closing, we may allude to the repeated
failure of permanently establishing window- and bottle-glass works in
this vicinity. The primary cause has been in the construction of the
furnaces, no improvement for centuries having taken place, but the old
defective plan being adhered to by workmen from Europe. A casual
observer must see they are defective, and consume double the quantity of
fuel really required for the weekly melts. The rate of wages for
experienced workmen, about threefold over the German rates, has heretofore
checked success, but at the present
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