Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-07-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
The Manufacture of Glass.

The Bridgeton Chronicle, published in the
neighborhood of extensive Glass Works, in
New Jersey, gives the following in reference
to the history and manufacture of that COM
! modify -
According to Pliny, the composition of
glass was first discovered by number of
merchants who were driven by storm to
take shelter at the mouth of the river Belus,
in Syria. \ fire was made on the ground,
where there was a great quantity of the
herb called kali. The plant burning to
ashes, its salt become mixed and incor-
porated with the sand, and thus formed
| glass. However this may be, glass was in
| use amongst the Greeks and Romans and
Egyptians from the earliest periods of which
we have any authentic information. Its
manufacture was first begun in England in
| 1867, but it was not until over two hundred
years afterwards that the English could
compete with the Venetian manufacturers.
The great abundance of sand in South
Jersey naturally pointed to the manufacture
of glass as q hopeful enterprise. The process
by which the sand and the salts used are
combined by the action of an intense heat
so as to form the new substance called glass
is termed vitrifcation. The substances con
sumed in the manufacture are put into
large trough or tank, made of pipe clay, and
u
| is kept constantly burning. A special de-
! partment Of the glass house is appropriated
! to the manufacture of these troughs. The
molten material is then taken out on the
end of the blowers pipe, by boy whose
! business it is to feed the blower with q con-
slant supply of the uniformed material, and
| whose work, in common with every other
| process in the manufacture simple as it
! seems, requires the most delicate skill A
few well-practised, and mysterious manipu-
lations on the part of the blower, and the
hot mass has been blown out to the requisite
dimensions, neither more nor less, or ruin
! must be the consequence,-mou into the
required shape, and delivered into the care
of another boy, who lifts it on the point of
I stick, dumps it in front of another, who
again gives it its place on the pile of others
in the annealing furnace. This last is heat
ed by wood fire which can be tempered at
leisure and here the bottles remain, leisurely
cooling down, for about week. When the
jars are sufficiently cooled they are consigned
to number of boys who knock off of them a
! thin supeifluous neck formed By the gradual
withdrawal of the blow,pipe from the mould.
| They are then taken to the grinding room,
where the edges are ground perfectly
smooth on hard stone turned 5y steam. A
simple india.rubbcr top, which renders
them perfectly air tight, completes the work,
and the jars are ready for packing.
To stand and watch the heated men at
work, nothing seemingly can be more sim
pie, and there is hardly single inexpe-
rienced person who would not undertake to
do as they land risk it," However, every
operation-eve the most simple in appear
ance-requires the most delicate skill, and
there is no species of manipulation in which
the skilled workman is more highly appre-
ciatod or better paid in proportion to the
less skilled than the manufacture of glass
Want of skill on the part of the blowers or
their attendants may, while apparently pro.
ductive of the best results, completely ruin
the credit of any establishment in q single
season.