Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
97 of 123
|
|
| |
pressed square feet, rudely made, somewhat after the present mode of
moulding glass. From 1814 to 1838, no improvement was made in Europe
in this process, which was confined to common salts and square feet.
America can claim the credit of great improvements
in the needful machinery which has advanced the art to its present perfection.
More than three quarters of the weekly melt is now worked up into pressed
glass, and it is estimated that upwards of two million dollars has been
expended in the moulds and machines now used in this particular branch of
glass-making. This leaves Europe far behind us in this respect. With us
there is active competition for excellence. It is, however, conceded that
James B. Lyon & Co.,
of Pittsburg, stand first. To such a degree of delicacy and fineness
have they carried their manufacture, that only experts in the trade can
distinguish between their straw stem wines, and other light and beautiful
articles made in moulds, and those blown by the most skilled workmen.
When we consider the difference in the cost between pressed and blown
ware, this rivalry in beauty of the former with the latter becomes
all the more important to the public, as it cheapens one of the staple
necessaries of civilized life.
|
|