
Up: Glassmaking

Reminiscences 72 of 123
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accomplishment of his task most manfully. Those only who have practical
experience of the character of the undertaking can fully appreciate the
various and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered and
overcome before success could be attained.
His first difficulty arose from want to skill in
the workmen, and the inferiority of the materials employed in the
manufacture of flint-glass. So little were the resources of the West
developed at that day, that Mr. Bakewell had to procure his pearlash
and red lead from Philadelphia, the pot clay from
Burlington, N.J.,-- the whole being transported
over the mountains in wagons to Pittsburg. The only sand then known was
the yellow kind, obtained in the vicinity, and used at this time only
for window-glass. For many years Mr. Bakewell obtained the saltpetre
needed from the caves of Kentucky, in a crude state, which article he
was obliged to purify, until the period of 1815, when the required supply
was obtained from Calcutta.
The few workmen then in the country were not
well instructed in the making of glass articles, after the glass was
prepared, to which was added the great evil (which has too usually prevailed
among the imported workmen) of a determination
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