Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1880-12-30
Business for Unemployed Women.
rEr,o,,, Aha Poafov Tvax,allar

If some woman who wants bread, not the
ballot, would set up mending establishment
to repair the clothing of business men who
have no one to do it for them, she might Gre
ate a new industry for which there is great
demand There are thousands of men in this
city who have no wives mothers or sisters to
give that little stitch in time which ward
robe constantly requires, to sew on the pro-
yerbial buttons, to darn the tiny rent which
is the accident of the hour, to adjust the
fit of a ready-made garment, which usually
needs little attention. Now here is an en-
ployment for women for which the demand
is simply overwhelming 1t requires no cap
ital to begin. There is no red tape about it
five-cent thimble, paper of needless a half
dozen spools of thread, will start the enter
prise 1t will require no advertising. The
first customer will be perfectly sure to advise
his fellow sufferers as to where this new
terprise is located. Once established needed
help could be employed, and arrangements
made to receive all work that came. Working
women need to seek new kinds of employ
ment To meet any success they must de-
wise supply and create demand for it.
Women are, as a rule, hopelessly inefficient.
The suffering which results from their hmita-
tions is not subject to be touched from any
but sympathetic point of view, yet all the
same it is true that woman's personal inca
pacity is the rock on which she shipwrecks.
1t is not wholly her fault We need kitchen
gardens and industrial training schools to ed
1cate women that they may help themselves.
There would be Just as much suffering among
men as women if they all persisted in crowd
ing into some three or four employments.
How Glass Cloth is Made.
From the Pittsburg (Pa) Commercially
After the mass has gradually become fused
into molten glass two of the employees of the
factory, with tongs take a mass of glass out
of the furnace and pull it slowly in opposite
g ILL
the floor of the factory, like red hot rope,
from one end of the apartment to the other.
After a sufficient number of these long ropes
of glass have been drawn. say of a thickness
of from half to three-quarters of an inch in
diameter, they are cut into lengths of three
feet each and allowed to cool, becoming an
nealed gradually. They are then takento the
spinning-r room. Here there is large driving
wheel made of wood eight and one half feet
in diameter. The periphery of this wheel is
smooth and about II inches in width. This
driving-wheel can be revolyed at the rate of
800 revolutions per minute, the motion being
furnished by steam-power. At one side there
is small stand with hot-air blow-pipe set
at right angles with the wheel The operator
takes one.of these bars of glass three feet long
and holds the end in this hot blast, which is
sufficiently hot to melt the glass. A thread
of glass is then drawn out of the bar with
pair of pincers and fastened around the cir
conference of the wheel. The steam is then
turned on and the wheel begins to revolve.
From the bar of glass held in the hot flame
there steadily runs thread of glass. At first
it is thick, but as the number of revolutions
of the wheel increase the thread gradually
dwindles down until it becomes as fine as gos-
samer or the finest silk thread. If it be de-
sired to run more than one thread at time,
another end is started and fastened in the
same way and wound around the wheel at the
rate of three or four miles a minute Singu-
lar as it may appear, the finer the thread is
spun the more elastic and pliahle 1t becomes
In addition to the pliability it has also great
tensile strength. After an immense coil of
glass thread has been made it is bound to-
gether in skeins The next step in the fabri-
cation of glass cloth is the weaving. For this
purpose a weaving machine resembling a silk
weaving machine is used The fibres of glass
are stretched across the loom, and the opera
tor passes the spindle from side to side, thus
| uniting together the warp and woof. By reg
ulating the machinery the texture of the fab
| ric can be made fine coarse as may be de-
| sired. The threads which have gained
| strength by the degrees of fneness to which
they have been spun unite together like silk
threads. Not only can fne-grained fabric
| be made, but lace pattern, no matter how
| intricate can be exactly reproduced. A roll
| of glass cloth can be either made of glass of
| one color or of a combination of colors. Thus
| deep amber glass, much resembling gold,
| white glass clear glass and purple and irrides-
| cent glass can be closely woven together in
one fabric, producing a marvellously beanti-
full fabric glittering in gas light like an i'm
mense setting of precious gems of infinites-
mial size.