The native American., 1839-04-06
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF GLASS.

The word glass is supposed TO be derived from
the German Giessum, the name for amber, which
1t was thought to resemble in its transparency and
brightness. Some imagine that glass to have
been invented before the flood, and that Moses al
uded TO the sands that glass was made of, when
he said to Zebulon-" They shall suck Of the
abundance OF the seas, and of treasures hid in the
sand )" for in the inheritance of that tribe, or
very near the frontier of it, ran the little river
Belus, where particular kind of sand was to be
found, of great use in the manufacture of glass,
which Pliny coroboraes, by informing us that
glass was first accidentally discovered in Syria,
at the mouth of the river Belus, by certain mer-
chants driven thither by the fortune of the sea-
who, being obliged TO live there and dress their
vlctuas by making fire on the ground, collected
some OF the plant kali, of which there was an
abundance on the spot, for that purpose this
herb, being burnt to ashes, occasioned virltica-
ton OF the sand and stones that adhered to it, thus
producing glass, and atfordng hint for the fab
rcation of it.
The period when this discovery was made is
involved in considerable obscurity for it seems
to be the general opinion, that what has been de-
nominated glass in the Old Testament, as well as
i'll some OF the translaons from ancient Greek
authors, ought rather to have been termed crystal
however, our knowledge of this invention is prin-
cipaly derived from the Romans though Theo-
phrastus, who lived about 300 B. c., has given
us some account of glass, which he also describes
as being made of the sand OF the river Belus.
The first glass-houses were erected at Sidon,
near the mouth of the Belus but the glass-houses
of Alexandra were most celebrated among the an
clients, for the skill and ingenuity of the workmen
employed i'll them; and from these the Romans
for long time procured all their glassware.
Lucreus, who wrote about so B. c., is the
earliest among the Latins who make any mention
of glass, which appears to have been brought into
use at Rome in the time of Augustus; and, if
the following anecdote be true, the manufacture of
IT, under his successor, carried to far greater
degree of perfection than the moderns are capa-
BILE of.
1t is related that in the time of Tiberius, an ar
tfcer in Rome made glass vessel Of so tena-
cious temper, that it was as difficult to break as
if it had been made of metal; and which, being
thrown with great violence on the ground, in the
presence of the the emperor, was not broken, but
bruised, and was Immediately beaten into its for
mer shape, by an instrument which the artifcer
had ready for that purpose. The emperor, who
appeared to have been rather more alarmed than
pleased with the experiment, inquired of the in
ventor if any other person besides himself was
privy to this method of tempering glass, and rem
derlng it malleable, and, being answered in the
negative, he ordered the unfortunate artiicer to be
put to death, saying that if the art should become
generally known, gold and silver would be of as
little value as dirt.
Pny observes that, iii his time, glass was made
with the sand found at the mouth of the river
Vulturnus, between Cume and the I.uctrine Bay.
This sand was very fine, and, being mixed with 8
parts of the fossil alkai, and fused was conveyed
in liquid state into other furnaces, where it was
formed into mass called ammonium, which being
again melted, became pure glass, and was brought
to the shape required by blowing with the breath,
though some pieces were ground on lathe, and
others embossed in the same manner as gold and
silver; he further notices, that no substance was
more manageable in receiving colors, or being
formed into shape, than glass. And it appears
from Martial that glass was not only in common
use for drinking vessels, but was likewise formed
into bottles, in which wine was kept; and re-
gular company of glass manufacturers was soon
afterwards established near the Porta Capena, at
Rome 4; but the Romans, in general, preferred sill
YER and gold to glass for the composition of their
drinking vessels.
Some square panes of a glazed aOindov were
discovered at Herculaneum, which proves that the
Romans made use Of glass, as we'll as of the lapis
specularis and phengitas, noticed by Seneca, for
the admission Of light into their rooms.
1t is presumed that the manganese was made
use of to purify glass in the time of Pliny, as he
more than once remarks that the magnet was en-
ployed in glass; and under this name the ancients
comprehended manganese, though the term itself
was first used by Albertus Magnus.
The art of manufacturing glass into such orna-
ments as beads and amulets was known to the an
cient Britons long before the arrival of the Ro-
mans: they also, according to Slrabo, made ves-
sells of glass, which were generally of blue
green cast but, as no notice is taken of this ma
nufacture during this period of the Roman govern
ment, it was probably one Of those arts which,
being only known to the Druids, was lost on the
determination of that people by Suetonius Pan
linus
The venerable Bede informs us that the Abbot
Benedict, about the year 674 first brought from
Italy ariifcers skilled in the making of glasc, for
the purpose of glazing the church and monastery
at Weremouh; and, as St. Jerome, who wrote
early in the fifth century, and Gregory of Tours,
IN the sixth century, make mention of windows
formed of glass, melted and cast into thin plates,
being used in their time, ii would seem that this
was one of the few arts, which, from its great
utility, was able to Withstand The shock IF Cotb;o