The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-06-07
THE RUTLAND DAILY GLOBE MONDAY MORNING JUNE J. 1875

the glass; en' be engraved with the sand
blast, npa can be ground In the same man.
ner AZ ',ther glass. The fact of its resist.
ing " .e diamond is a drawback, as 1t would
he..ye to be cut into the sizes required for
windows before being treated in the oil bath
but experiments are at present being made
which seem to promise favorable result
Is cutting 1t by some other method. Hith-
erto the invention has not been worked up
on large scale. the whole of the glass at
present operated upon having been treated
by M. de Ia Bastie, who 10 fortunately pos
messed of auple private means, in his la
boratory. Works are at present in course
of erection in France to work the inven-
ton commercially.
The advantages of this invention and the
new fields which it opens for the employ
ment of glass are immense. OF the benefit
to house-keepers by the rendering of all
the table glass, windows, and pier-glasses
unbreakable, we need say nothing, for this
will be apparent to every reader. In the
article of glass chmneys alone the con-
sumption is at present enormous. We
should be afraid to mention the number of
millions of chimneys for lamps which we
have heard are manufactured yearly In
France alone. Short indeed is the life of
a chimney at present, and the constant
| breakage is one reason why lamps are not
more extensively used than they are. For
safety lamps in mines 1t would be impossl-
BILE to overrate the advantage of the new
| invention; indeed, it is not too much to
say that it will to great extent do away
with explosions. Once make glass
which is practically unbreakable, and the
men will be content to use the safety lamp,
| which will then give as much light as an
unprotected flame, and safety lamps will
be universally used. Experts consider
that the new glass is likely to be useful as
lining for acid-tanks at chemical works.
1t will probably come in use for pipes of
all kinds, for jars and vessels, and indeed
for vast number of purposes for which
earthen ware and metal are now used. 1t
will doubtless, to some extent, supersede
china for dinner and dessert plates, as it
will resist the action of the hot water
during the process of washing us well as
does china, while it will be very much
stronger and less likely to break or chip
ulder careless treatment. In short, this
invention will extend the uses and the
usage of glass to an almost indefinite de-
gree. The expense of the operation is very
slight, indeed, with some description il
goods it will be less than the cost of the
present system of annealing. There is
too, great saving of time, for whereas the
process of annealing large sheets of plate
glass is long and delicate, by the new sys
TEN they will simply be slid from the over
where they have been reheated into th'
bath of oil, and will at once-for the dura
ton of the bath is only a minute or so-b'
ready for dispatch to market. For conserva
tories and green houses the saving ffrcte,
by the use of the new ma crldl viii bt
very great. Much Thinner and lighte
glass than is at present +, qured can b.
!, used with corresponding reduction in tn,
strength of the sashes and framework. ant
as no brcakage from hail or other cause
need be anticipated the root need no longe
be made strong enough to bear the weigh
of the glaciers whose services are so oftel
required. 1t is not too much to calculate
, that the saving in the cost of the green
1 houses of the future will be half the ex
pense now incurred in their construction
Sooner or later we believe that all glas
manufactured will be treated by M. de Ii
Bastie's method, and the time may CONT
: when people will cease to understand tn
meaning of the old proverb ''that thos
who dwell in glass houses should neve
throw stones"