The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-07-09

that the fire can have free access to them
all on both top and bottom. and so suffuse
them ard their contents all in the same
steady, fervent heat On these shelves the
painted glass, now dry, is piled in layers
twelve or fifteen deep until all the shelves
have received their complement, and the
oven is full. The heavy iron doors are
then closed, and the baking begins. An
intensely hot fire is kindled in short time
che iron plates and all the many colored
pieces of glass are red hot. The tempera-
ture is maintained for eight hours, at the
| end of which time the fire is drawn, and
the glass is left to cool. The cooling is
very slow,reC uiring forty eight hours, in or.
! der that the glass, which otherwise would be
as brittle as ice of the same thickness may
be annealed or toughened. When removed
from the kiln it is found that the 'flux"
(being itself in a great measure composed
of glass; in which is incorporated the col
or, has melted, and the surface of the pre-
viously clear glass plate having also slight
~ melted, the two have fused together, SO
that there is now, in fact, sheet of plain
glass, having ON one side thin "veneer,"
so to speak, of glass of another color, which
Is so firmly adherent as to be absolutely in
separable, save at the expense of fracture.
The cooked or colored glasses are now
removed to the room of the workman
whose business it is to join them together
in the proper design. To do this he has
a large horizontal table, on which he pro-
ceeds to bui1 up. the proposed window,
working by the water color or pencil pat
tern before him. Beginning at what is to
be the bottom of the picture, he lays the
lower border of the design, fastening the
pieces together by flat lcaden, rod made
the purpose. These rods are a sort CT
narrow strip of very soft lead, with a deep
groove along each of its sides. Into this
groove is placed the edge of piece of
glass of the proper color, and the edge of
the grove is bent down so as to hold the
glass in secure grip. A second slip of
glass, of another color, is then fastened in
to the opposite grove, and so the "build-
ing up" continues, the workmen slowly adj
ding piece after piece to his mosaic pattern
till the whole is finished. The leaden
frame work, or SASH is then most carefully
covered with cement of oil, putty, and
red lead, which renders it to be weather
tight, and proof against both rain and
wind The window having been properly
framed by the carpenter, the work is done.
Glass stainers use two sorts of 'ruby"
and "blue" glass; in one sort, known as
flashed" glass, the color is blown or SUI
periinposed on plain surface, thus max
ing q sort of "veneer," as before described.
This peculiar arrangement makes it posi-
bic to produce very elegant and beautiful
effects by cutting down through the color
and exposing the transparent glass be-
meath, precisely in the the same manner
that canoes are cut.
Some little idea of the cost can be gain
ed from the knowledge that the glass work
for the Colt Memorial Church will cost
$1,000, the chancel window calling for
S2,000-the great chancel window of Trim
ity Chapel, corner of twenty fifth street
and Fifth avenue, New York, costing $5,-
900, ETC., etc. In fact, SO excellent is the
New York City glass work reckoned, and
so great is the demand for it, that the IA
cilities for it's manufacture have been more
than doubled in the last two years.--N Y.
Times.