The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1872-10-14
M. GUTMAN & co.
TIE Largest STOCK OF
Mems and Boys 0vercoats



been resumed here, and as good many
of our citizens have never witnessed the
very interesting process Of it's manufac.
ture, we thought it might be instructive
to give an account Of what we saw and
learned at the factory Of the Wheeling
Window Glass Company, on Saturday
last.
Dropping in at the factory in North
Wheeling, on Saturday, we found about
forty men at work busy as bees making
window glass by a, to us, very curious
process. Their furnace, in the first
place, is built in the ancient style; it
has no chimney, and the smoke from
the bituminous coal they burn pours
out in a cloud into the room. There
are openings in the roof for it to escape
through, and a continual draught of air
from the doors carries it upward, 50
that it is not 40 bad for the workmen as
one would think. Besides, they do not
begin to blow until the smoke is all
burnt off.
The pots are on each side Of the fur
mace, and you will see the men in a
row, blowing all at once, with the regu-
larity Of file of soldies exercising.
Each gathers thirty or forty pounds Of
metal on his pipe, which is very long
and strong. They stand on platforms,
to get room to swing the glass as they
blow it. The men begin to blow and
swing together. Each blows great
globe Of glass. which is stretched out
gradually by the swinging motion into
a cylinder, or roller, as il is called. five
feet long. Then the rollers are swung
up toward the furnace holes and are
reheated in the necks Of the pots. The
blowers blow in the pipes with all their
might, then clap their thumbs over the
holes to prevent the air from rushing
out again in the mean time while the
end of the roller is softened, 80 that al
last the air, forced in and expanded by
the heat, burts it outwards. The glass
is then cylinder, open at one end. II
is whirled in the heat until the edges
become true, then brought away. The
cylinders are laid on tables, where the
imperfect spherical end about the blow
ing pipe is cracked off from the rest by
a stripe Of melted glass drawn around it
The cylinder is then cracked from enc
to end on one side by means Of rec
hot iron passed through it.
In an adjoining building is what ii
called the Aattening oven. The cylin
ders brought there are lifted on the enc
OF a lever, passed in through a circular
opening just large enough to admi
them. and laid on AstteniDg stones or
the oven bottom with, the crack upper
most. The oven bottom is circular, anc
it revolves horizontally. AS the glass
softens it separates at the crack anC
lays itself down gently and gradually or
the stone. The long cylinder is then 6
flat sheet, three feet wide and nearl
five feet in length. There are fou
openings around the sides Of the oven
at one the glass is put in, through an
other workman sweeps the stone fo
it, a third workman smoothes it dowr
with block as it comes round to him
and fourth, at the last opening, which
is close to the one at which it was pu
in, lifts the sheet-partly cooled by thi
time-upon a carriage in the oven
This he does by means of lever fur
nished with sharp, broad blades at th'
end, which he works in under the glass
When the carriage is full it is rul
through an annealiag oven beyond.
The opposite end Of the annealine
oven opens into the cutting room. Their
the carriages are pushed along q cen
trail track, and unloaded at the stalls o
the cutters. The cutter has a table be
fore him, with measure marks on it
edges. He lifts one of the sheets, lay
it on the table, and commences ruling i
faster than a school boy rules . slate
His rule is a wooden strip about fiv'
feet long, aud his pencil point is a da'
mond. Every stroke is cut, and it i
wonderful the skill necessary to max
this cut. To the novice it looks yer,
easy, yet the novice cannot make
scratch with the diamond on the glass
while the workman's every scratch
though it does not cut the glass apart
cracks it 40 that it breaks clean off OF
the slightest pressure. In this way tn
sheets are cut up into the requisite sig
and packed in boxes for shipment.
But the curious reader will do bette
by going to see the process for himself
1t is very interesting and novel. espe'
cially to those who have never seen it
WHEELING SILK HAT MANDATORY
w. Taylor, the Practical Halter, hal