The native American., 1839-04-06

are also growne into less use, because glass is
nearly as cheap, if not better than the other."-
But glass windows were not introduced into the
better sort of farmhouses in the country till the
commencement of the seventeenth century.
The Venetlans, about the commencement OF
the fourteenth century, became celebrated for their
glass manufactures at Mureno and from that time
till the middle of the seventeenth century, they
generally supplied the rest of Europe with this
article. Our ancestors generally drank out of
cups made either of wood, horn, or metal cups
of crystal glass were imported from Venice dur
ing the reign of James l., and were placed in re-
cesses, as objects of value and curiosity, along
with the china and plate, in the time Of Charles
III. manufacture of glass was first established
III London, in 1857, and was considerably i'm
proved IN 1855 by the adoption of pit or sea-coal.
instead OF wood. Soon afterwards, a MONOPOLY
was granted TO Sir Robert Mansell to import the
fine Venetian flint glasses for drinking; the art OF
making which was not brought to perfection be-
fore the reign of William III. In 1870, the Duke
of Buckingham, having procured some artists
from Venice, introduced the manufacture of fine
glass into England, with so much success as, in
the of acentury, to have surpassed the pro-
auctions of the Venetans themselves.
The art of casting glass in plates was invented
by Abraham Thevant, Frenchman, in 1888, and
first practised in this country at Prescott, in Lam
cashire, in 1878.
The art of tinging the glass with various colors
was known to the ancients, and practiced at Alex.
andria; for read that cups manufactured at that
place were presented to the emperor Adrian,
which sparkled with colors of every kind; and
Strabo says this was effected by peculiar EARTH
which was only to be met with in Egypt. In
some collections of antiquities at Rome, are
pieces of glass so perfectly colored and transpa-
rent throughout, that they were frequently taken
for Jewels.
What materials the ancients had for colorng
glass; is unknown; but it is certain that metallic
calces must have been employed, as these pig
mens alone are capable of outstanding the heat
Of the glass furnaces.
The process Of tinging glass and enamels, by
preparations of gold, is first detailed by Ner, in
his .7rt Of Making Glass, published in 1911,
which was improved upon by the gold calx, or
preciptate, invented by Kulkel, who, about the
year 1880, made. a cup Of ruby glass for the
Eector of Cologne, weighing not less than TWEEN
ty-four pounds, full inch in thickness, and Of an
equally beautiful color throughout Drinking
glasses with gilt edges were first manufactured at
Bohemia, and other places in Germany.
Painting on glass and enamel may, in certain
coloring glass: originally, it consisted in the ar
rangement of pieces of glass of different colors,
in some sort of symmetry, constituting kind of
Mosaic work; afterwards, when an attempt was
made to represent figures, and to delineae the diff
ferent shades Of their draperies, the figures were
drawn in black, with water colors, and the dra-
peries attached to it by separate glasses of the
lor required. About the year 1900, French
painter at Marseies discovered method of in
cooperating the colored drawings themselves on
the glass. by exposing it to proper degree of
heat after the colors had been laid on; and this
invention was considerably improved upon by
Albert Durer, and Lucas, Of Leyden.
This art is supposed to have been introduced
into England in the reign of john and was at first
exercised by ordinary tradesmen, from plans
drawn by artists. Walpole produces instances of
it in the reign of Henry ILL.,; and he traces the
history of it from the Reformation (when mis-
guided zeal destroyed most of the monuments oil
it in our churches to series of professors to the
present time.
The art Of cutting or engraving on glass by
means Of lapidary's wheel is noticed by Pliny,
and was revived by Caspar Lehman, in the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century. The dia-
mond is first mentioned as being applied to this
purpose by Francis I. of France; soon after
which, festoons and earhen ornaments, cut with
a diamond, became extremely common on the
Venetian glasses. Previous to this discovery,
emery, and sharp-pointed instruments Of hard
steel, and sometimes red-hot iron, were used by
the GLACIERS for the purpose of dividing the glass
A method of forming glass to resemble porce-
lain, by reducing it to a less vitrfed state, was
invented by Reaumur, about l74O.
Musical glasses of German origin, and were
introduced into England in 1850.
Lady's Amaaranth. |
From the SDeetator.1