Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-04-18
VOL. XXVII.

LADY, Tale is mineral that is split up
and used for window -panes in India and
China, nowadays, just as mica is used in
Russia. They're not so transparent as
you are, but then, like me, they're not so
brittle. But the Romans are famous hands
at glass-making for all that. Were you
ever in the British Museum, old lady
I've been emptied there more than once
amt one of your pie-crust sort but
that's neither here nor there. In the
British Museum l made the acquaintance
of distinguished Italian connection of
ours-the Portland Vase. It's blue with
white figures on it. Thetis under tree,
and Peleus looking at her. 1t was made
to hold the ashes of somebody or other.
That seems to be a queer use to put good
glass to, don't it, old lady We're YER
satile family-all kinds of things we go
in for: urns, bottles, decanters, wine
glasses, vases, cups and saucers, looking
glasses, bowls with pictures showing
through their skin, window panes, beads,
dice, draughtsmen, wall-panels, sham
precious stones, balls, hair-pins, rings,
magnifying- glasses, burning glasses, tele-
scopes, microscopes, water-clocks, prisms,
flower holders, knucklebones, ships, cof-
fins, door-handles, photographs, multiply
ing glasses, pillars, piano-strings-
there, Tn out of breath. Venice used to
be the place for glass making. The max
ers there make as much fuss about their
secret, as IF they were Fre-masons I'm
told that since Victor Emanuel got Vince,
glass-making there is looking up again.
Pm inclined to think, however, that II
you slump use and beauty, and strike a
fair average, we British glassites are as
good as any. Somewhere about the six
teenth century glass was first made in
England, though it had been used here a
long while before that. Crutched Friars,
the Savoy, and Lambeth, were the London
places in which glass was first made; and
Wemyss, Prestonpans and Leith, the
Scotch places. There, old lady, I'll be
bound to say you never knew so much
about our family before"
"The black bottle is boor," the decan-
ter said, loftily, to the wine-glasses; but
still l will not deny that he possesses a
certain amount of Information. That is
the way with these common people. Pos
sessing no intrinsic dignity, they are
obliged to rely upon their useful knowl-
edge-useful but vulgar-for respect
eyes, that's always the way with those
common people," echoed the medicine
bottle.
"You contemplate little Loblolly,"
shouted the black bottle, and began to
chase the medicine bottle. Just as the
medicine bottle got to the edge of the
shelf, it ducked and doubled-over went
the black bottle, and was smashed into a
hundred fragments on the stone floor of
the closet.
In an instant-strange things, you
know, happen after twelve o'clock at
night-these black bits of glass changed
into wide black landscape. Tongues of
flame, Pickering in smoke, were licking
the dirty lips of roaring iron furnaces.
Dirty rubbish rose in hills on all sides,
with dirty ponds stagnating between.
The pastures were Uttered with cinders,
and the stiles looked as if they were cut
out of coal. The miry high-road stretched
drearily along, with smutty, squat red
houses on each side; the narrow lanes had
almost lost their hedges, and were as
black as ink and as sticky as treacle
High overhead colliery-wheels spun
round. The stalks of all kinds of engine
houses belched out black clouds. Filthy
tramways and scarcely less filthy railways,
with stations as dirty as dust-bins, made
the country look like sweeps scratched
face. Cottages were sinking in the ground
like laundering ships into the sea; and
conical kilns and beehive-shaped kilps-
dingy red, yellow, and white-filled the
air with sitting fumes.
Just where this dreary country runs
into and stains the selvage of beautiful
green country, with gently ling
wooded hills, saw a man digging up
clay.
''What's that, and what is it for?" 1
asked
He was very gruff man, anG at first
gave me no answer.
At last, when I had asked him several
times, he answered, snappishly, "What's
aohat?"
sWhy, that clay" I said
eff you know it's clay, what need had
you to ask?n said the man. "And if you
want to know what it's for, wait and
see."
So I did wait for many weeks in the
closet-it had grown very big place,
you must remember, since the black bot
tie had tumbled down.
The men dried the clay, and sifted it
like flour and made dough of it, and
kneaded the dough with their naked feet,
and then made it up into huge loaves,
and locked the loaves up in dark eel
lar.
After bit some other men ground
some potsherds up, and mixed the dust
with the clay they had taken out of the
cellar; and then some other men made
great melting-pots out of the clay. Some
of the pots were like huge, thick flower
pots without any hole at the bottom; and
others had their tops covered with dome,
and an opening in the sides like bottletits'
nests. 1t took long time to dry and
bake these pots. When they were ready,
they were let down into fiery furnaces,
and the hole through which they were
lowered were covered up with fire-clay.
You remember what the black bottle said
it and the medicine bottle were made Of
Well, men put stuff of that kind into the
| flower-pot-like pots through openings in
the furnace, and then stopped the holes
up for an hour or two, until the pots were
ready for some more stuff; and so they
went on until the pots were full. The
men had only shoes and trousers on
and they told me they drank melted but
ter only, to keep their bodies from shriv
elling when all their natural perspiratioI
was used up-but I fancy they drank
beer as well. When the pots were full
the holes were filled up again, and the fire
was made iercer than ever for ever sc
many hours. Then the holes were open
ed again, and the fire was let down lit
tie, whilst men skinned the scum off the
melted, almost blindingly white hot stuff
| in the pots. When the stuff in the pots
was skinned, men poked long hollow
iron rods into it, and wriggled them about
When they had got enough of the stuff
on them, they blew down them, and made
the sticky stuff swell out little. Ther
they took their swollen knobs to an iror
table, sprinkled them with water, an(
rolled them on the table into lanky glas
eggs. These eggs were put to the moutl
of the furnace again, and blown into ono,
more. Next they were put into meta
moulds and blown down into; and he
prestoi they turned into bottles-all bu
the necks. The necks were next finishe
in way that you would not exactly III
derstand unless you saw it done, and th
bottles were carried off by perspiring Ii
tie boys on iron prongs, and stacked i
ovens, which were heated until the bo
ties too almost began to sweat, and the
gradually cooled to make the bottle
strong
Window-glass needs more care tina
bottle-glass. There are different materials
and different ways of managing them.
fbot uo,, will ba biodxr inf of