Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-06-27

that its discoverer has no chance OF immortality.
Sir Gardner Wilkinson found on one of tho Egyp-l
ian monuments a representation OF two glass
blowers initiating n piece of the molten metal Just
as glass-blowers do nowadays, where the adjuncts
of the picture proved that it must have occurred
during tho reign of o monarch who died 3,5UO
year ago. Layard found glass vases in the buried
chambers of Nineveh. The Barberini, or Portland
vase, which q crazy wretch dashed in pieces, a few
years ago, at the British Museum, claimed an age
of not less than $500 years.
The Greeks aud Romans used glass for drinking
vessels, and even for scientific purposes. In the
time of St. Paul it was used to some extent for
windows as we infer from the passage in CORN.
thians, in which he says: "For now we tee through
a glass darby, but then face to face" 1t was
manufactured extensively in and about Constant
nople, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries,
and at Venice up to the fifteenth century, yet IN
England, in 1000 no windows were glazed except
those Of the great ministers and cathedrals, and
the best chambers of the kings palace. Sixty
years later the keeper of the Duke of N%orthumber'
lands estates advised that during n somewhat
protracted absense Of the Duke, the glass from the
windows should DO taken out and packed away
safely, to avoid loss and damaged
Even as late as the commencement of the last
century, very few of the houses occupied by the
common people had glass windows. The open
iugs to admit light we're closed with solid shutters,
and when light was wanted, cold or hot air came
in as well for the English peasant of those days
had not the ingenuity of the EsquimauS, who
make their windows in summer Of q plate Of mica,
and in winter a slab of clear ice.
Still, we have not, perhaps, so much the advan-
tage of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors as we imagine,
Their cottages were well ventilated and 1t the
bleak winds made them shiver q little, they were
healthier than we, with our close rooms and double
windows, through which not q stray zephry can
find admittance.
: The manufacture of glass received a fresh i'm.
, pulse, both in England and France, in the early
part of the last century. and in the course of time
even the novels of the poor were lighted with a
few panes of glass, and, in consequence, became
less filthy for darkness and dirt are very apt to
go together. The houses of the very wealthy were
glazed with olate glass, and plate glass mirrors OF
gigantic size and price were among the tavOrlte
embellishments Of their mansions. Within the
memory Of the present generation, both in Eng
land and the United States, the shop windows
on the principal streets of the large cities, which
had previously been lighted with small panes Of
crown glass, were fitted up with lights of plate
glass frequently 6 or 8 by ~ feet in size, and but
for the inability Of the manufacturers to cast per-
feet plates much beyond this size, the shopkeepers
would probably have gone on until the entire front
of their buildings was a single sheet Of glass, and
their customers, Tantalus like, might have seen
but could not have obtained the coveted.goods.
In the manufacture of blown glass Art, in the
long lapse Of centuries, has made very little inn
pr5vement. The Oldest specimens Of glass are as
transparent and as Thoroughly vItri6ed as those
which are found in our shops at the present day.
The materials are the same, and the process OF
manufacture is hardly changed at all.
In plate glass, the addition of some Of the oxides
Of lead has increased the feasibility, clearness, and
brilliancy of the compound, and thus adapted 1t
more fully for certain uses. In the casting Of
lenses of large size Ia diameter of 20 inches is, we
believe, the largest vet attained) the highest
loponnDt of ccianti6n eki1 and prantipal ta1ent has
been engaged, and judging from tho results thus
far secured, we may hope soon for tho c%onstruc-
ton of a telescope which will enable Us to look
, into the parlors of our lunar friends. supposing
them to have any, and ascertain satisfactorily
Y their occupations and amusements.
j. We can not leave this subject without abiding
It to that triumph of modern art the Crystal Palace
n of the worlds Fair. in 1851. 1t was reserved fo
h Sir Joseph Paxon to rear, in less than a year, tn
most stupendous building of modern times, an
II that mainly of a material proverbial for ~fIagility
TT and it was worthy of England to dedicate tia
lie edifce (removed to a more favorable ~pOsition)
ID Science and Art. Among the proudest mong
ments Of the genius of her sons will ever stand til
il Crystal Palace at SydeDham.
SO A curled maple bedstead occupies another co
OK ner of our bedroom. The Acer Saccharinur
sugar maple or sugar-tree of the Western State
le- of which this and the birds-eye maple (f whiC
a our room also furnishes q specimcn) are the mo
ii. beautiful varieties, is ~atnative of North Americ
eG and is decidedly the most beautiful of our decid
of Gus trees. Varying in height from fifty to OF
he hundred feet, its branches form a regular cone, al
The its abundant foliage renders it the glory of {
va. forest, even in the early summer but in the a
tumn, when the first fr0sts have calculated t
juices Of its leaves, and they change their rainbC
lat hues almost with each passing hour, there is
US tree of the forest which can be compared with
ich for beauty.
l in Well do l remember standing, one Septemt
. morning, years ago, upon the summit of Laul
-; Ridge, one of the highest points of the Penns
.u vanian Allcghanies, and looking off upon the 81
ons rounding valleys, as one after another they glistC
-, ed in the rays OF the rising sun. An early fr
'' had touched the foliage, and she oak, the butt
nut, the walnut, the hornbeam, the chestnut,
vim. tuli p-tree, and the elm, all contributed to
the beauty Of the scene. Pre-eminent over all, he
, or ever, in the variety and glory of its colors, ste
y the maple, its leaves now burning with a Grim:
ma. whose intensity would have paled a cardin;
pro- robe, now ranging from the pleasant straw-color
,wn the deep golden hue of the ripened corn now {
ath- ing into n tint of modest brown, and then, in so
one sheltered spot, displaying its summer hues
lese emerald. The early morning had been misty,
the leaves glittered with the rain.drops till
ome seemed as if nature had indeed donned her z
Ters robes, to moke herself "'the meeter for the su
bright coming"
eal' But it is not for its foliage alone that the ma
is worry of notice. No wood, native to the Il
Is a perate zone, possesses so much beauty of struct
tied as its ornamental varieties. The best specim
full, os the curled maple. when properly treated,
the hardly surpassed by. the cuban mabOgony
Iun- the bird's-eye has a peculiar elegance, which
the has never been able to copy. With these, as W
trail most ornamental woods, age greatly increases Il
inly beauty.
.rid' Upon the bedstead is a very superior matt,
ele' of curled hair, with feather pillows. The best
oner for mattresses comes from South America, and
afro procured from the name and tail of the wild h
ldon a defendant of the Andalusian courser of the o
sr, a Snanish colonists. which now roams in vast h,
him over the pampas, or elevated praries, of Brazil
ZONE La Plata. The use of this material for beds, tho
0 his common among the Spaniards for nearly two
that turtles, dates in England and this country wi
fter, the last seyenty-fye wears. In the times of
cred Tudors. and eyen of the Stusrts, the yealt
hese classes used beds stuffed with straw or hay,
IS of for luxury. covered with skins or tapestry.