The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-06-24
NO MORE BROKEN GLASS.
N. de Ia Bastie's Discovsry-ExperS
ments with the ToAghened Glas..

| hS W OCCupG6to OF
glass houses is ir danger of losing its force.
Il. A. de Ia Bastie, Freuchman. has a.
ready succeeded in making the demolition OF
that hitherto fragile substance matter of
no small difficulty. When saucers, plates,
and glass dishe, OF every description, not
to mention watch-crystals and large plates
of window glass, are thrown about a room
; in a miscellaneous manner, with greater
damage to the floor than to the missiles, the
inquiry, Cannot glass be made practically
unbreakable? becomes one of interest.
All this and much more was done by
Prof. Egleston, of the School OF Mines;
yesterday, at Cooper Institute, with the
La Bastie glass. Before beginning his ex-
perlments, the Professor assured his audi
eace that although he had been engaged in
experimenting upon the substance at the
request of Messrs. Paturle and De la Cha
pelle, agents for NJ. de la Bas,ie, during
the past two mouths, he was not yet pre-
I P ired to state all the properties of tho
wonderful glass, The discovery, or il might
/ be called tue invention of VI. de la Bastis,
was only made last autumn, but for the
last ten year he has devoted his tiuis aud
attention to the matter, having during that
! time tried over 1000 different baths, the
tecuiar properties ofhis glass being obtain
ed by plunging ordinary glass, when at
| great heat, into bath composed mainly.
oe fatty substances. The peculiar proper.
/ ties are toughness to an almost Incredible
degree, and non conduction of heat to an
absolute degree. Further than the heating
aud bathing in fatty substance (the COM
position Of which bath is of course seeret)
there appears no difference in its manu-.
facture from that of ordinary glass, and
yet its whole molecular construction is diff
ferent When broken. as it can Of course
be By sufficient force it rivals the tradition
al zone horse shay in the totalness of its
destrutlon,a piece inches square furnishing
several hundred fragments, each fragment
paradoSically being an entire piece by it.
self, with smooth edges, 50 that one might
safely thrust his hand into barrel of this
broken glass and withdraw it uninjured
The glass exhibited yesterday was hardly
as smooth and clear as might be necessary
for some purposes, but Prof. Esleston stat
ed that this defect was owing entirely to tho
crude means at present provided for the
process, and not to any fault in the process
itself. The experiments yesterday were
conducted in the presence of large num-
Der Of spectators.
As preliminary, the Professor threw
a few piecs of red glass, of considerable
thickness, about the room, which only ex-
cited smile from the many glass dealers
present; next sHucers and various other
glass dishes gilmore fragile dimensions boun-
ded unbroken from the hard floor, and the
smiles Gwinded: and when. in handfuls.
watch crystals and long, thin pieces of
glass fell on the floor and remained whole,
IL round of applause broke from all present.
The next experiment consisted of testing the
strength of ordinary glass and this patent
glass beneath steel weight, cartridge shap-
e1 and tempered, dropped from different
heights. Best English plated glass broke
beneath . ounce ball falling feet s inches.
Ordinary pate-glass was broken by a 4
ounce ball dropped from height of foot
while the tempered glass resisted the blows
of weight until it had been raised to 3 feet
9 inches. A l pound weight required to
be raised 3 feet to break piece Of this
wonderful glass A of an inch thick. To
demonstrate the advantage Of using this
substance in roofs of hot houses, a plate was
placed IN a slanting position and ounce
ball allowed to fall upon it perpendicularly
as hailstones strike upon slanting roofs, and
it was not until the ball fell from height
of 9 feet and had struck the same spot
forty six times that it was broken, while
common glass of twice the thickness was
demolished at feet. Another experiment
consisted in allowing a strip of glass 3
inches wide and 3-lG cf an inch thick to
project from vase inches, and placing
weights upon the projecting end In THE
position it supported 46 pounds, while or
dinary glass of the same dimensons sus-
tained but l6 II pounds.
The next experiment failed. A strip Of
the patent glass 10 inches in length, 3
inches wide, anG 8 l6 of an inch thick, was
bridgcd upon two upIights, and weights
suspended from it in the centre. One
huDdrcl and eighty pounds were thus sos-
pended, when, the glass stil remaining un-
broken, with no signs of its giving way.
and there being no more weights on hand,
the experiment had to be abandoned. Many
similar experiments were tried, all with
great success. Glass dishes were heated
and cooled without injury, and one plate
was exhibited which Prof. Eglcston said
had remained upon the range in his house,
subject to every change of temperature, for
over week The Professor also vouched
for having heated a large plate of the
material in the centre to 1000 degrees, and
still held it comfortably by the edges in his
bare hands 4 photograph taken upon a
piece of the glass was likewise exhibited,
and the immense value Of the article to
photographers in enabling them to preserve
/ their negatives was shown. Specimens
were also produced, colCred, stained, and
engraved, so that there appears nothing
for which ordinary glass is used that can
not be improved and benefited by this dis
covery. A diamond will not cut it, but
means for doing SO are thought to be of
easy discovery. The process of n1annfac-
turing the article is also said to be within