Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1855-06-27
9fletBanitaI Department
MANUFACTURE OF GLASS.
IT'S HISTORY AND MYSTERY
SELECTED FOR THE HERALD, BY =. A. KENDALL.
Number One.

Number One
Since glass is becoming an article of
such Importance as to constitute with
iron, the entire material of which the
largest edi6ces are constructed, the Crys
tai Palaces of London and New York for
the exhibition Of the worlds industry, be-
ing eminent examples. and as glass is eve
ry year entering more and more largely
into works of taste and utility, we have
thought that series Of articles on the
nature, manufacture and uses of glass,
would be particularly acceptable to our
lreaders. Health cannot be enjoyed in the
dark The sunlight is almost as necessa-
lry to man as to vegetable life. When the
tariff on glass in England was modified,
which had been so extraordinarily taxed
that people Of the middle and lower class,
to save the tax, used but two or three
panes to light large room, the people at
once used it much more freely, and the
| influence of light upon health was such,
that in short time the health reports ex-
hibited signal diminution of Sickness
We use in this country too many blinds
and curtains to darken our honses, for
fear of fading carpets and furniture, and
become ourselves faded.
Upwards of two thousand years ago,
perhaps three, company of merchants,
who had a cargo of nitre on board their
ship, we're driven by the winds on the
shores of Galilee, close to a small stream
that runs from the foot of Mount Carmel.
Being here weather bound till the storm
abated, they made preparations for cook
ing their food ON the strand; and not find
ing stones to rest their vessels upon, they
used some Jumps of nitre for that purpose,
placing their Kettles and stew-pans on the
top, and lighting strong fire underneath.
AS the heat increased, the nitre slowly
melted away, and flowing down the beach,
became mixed up with the sand, forming,
when the incorporated mass colled down,
a singularly beautiful, transparent sub
stance, which excited the astonishment
and wonder of the beholder.
Such is the legend of the origin of
GLASS.
A great many centuries afterwards
that is to say towards the close of the fif-
teenth century of the Christian era-when
some Of the secrets of the Glass-house.
supposed to have been known to the an
clients, were lost, and the simple art of
blowing glass was but scantily cultivated
an artifcer, whose name is unfortunate
ly escaped Immortality, while employed
over his crucble accidentally split some
Of the maserial he was melting Being in
fluid state it ran over the ground till it
found it's way under one of the large flag
stones with which the place was paved,
and the poor man was obliged to take up
the stone to recover his glass. By this
time it had grown cold, and to his infinite
surprise he saw that, from the Aatness and
equality of the surface beneath the stone,
it had taken the form of slab-a form
which could not be produced by any pro-
cess of BLOWING then IN ,.Su.
! Such was the accident that led to the
discovery of the art of casting PLATE
GLASS.
These are the only accidents recorded
in the History of Glass. For the rest
the discovcy of its endless capabilities
and applications-we are indebted to ac-
cumulated observation and persevering
experiment, which, prosecuting their in
genious art-labors up to the present hour,
promise still farther to enlarge the do
main of the Beautiful and the Useful.
1t would be piece Of pure pedantry to
attempt to fix the origin of glass-making.
Some writers assert that glass was known
before the food. No doubt it was, since
it would be impossible to light fire, and
urge it to a great heat, without vitrifying
some part of the bricks or stones of which
the furnace was built. And that very
vitrifaction contained the secret of glass.
But such rude hints of the mysteries Of ma
ture are usually thrown away upon the
world for long time before people begin
to think of turning them to any practical
use. How many still more obvious hints
were thrown out by Nature before Harvey
and Newton determined the circulation of
blood and the law of gravitation? Yet
blood circulated and apples fell from the
beginning of time.
Through the wastes of speculation over
which this inquiry has spread, the earliest
attested fact we meet with is the erection
of glass house in the city of Tyre. This
is the first glass-house on record. Glass
may have been known, or rather seen be-
fore (which is quite different matter;
but this is the first historical instance of
glass having been made, pW by an acct
dental combination of its elements, but by
human skill. Tyre, whose extensive com
merce gave her the command of vast vents
for her productions, held in her hands for
many,ages the staple Of the manufacturers,
obtaining materials from the shore of the
river. Belus, at..whose embouchure the
weather-bouh merchants cooked the "a
nous dinneiwhich is said.to have origina-
ted the discovery. The legend may.have
no foundation in truth; but it derives
color Of likelihood from the profitable use
which was afterwardsm of the glitter
ing sands of that coast
Of the antiquity of glass, simply consid
cred as a hard and brittle mass which,
when broken, reveals luminous fracture,
we have abundantevidence Fragments