Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-03
GLASS FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.
Beautiful Ware Ordered by Congress
and Made in a New York Factory.

ana MADE IN u New York Factory.
CORNING, Aug. 2S.-A glass works
company in this place is now manufac-
turing a set of table glassware Tor the
White House. The fifty dozen pieces or
dered include for the most part what is
called stem ware, i. O., goblets, tumblers,
%decanters, liqueurs, l%emonades, etc. The
light glasses are for the most part gold.
ruby or amber ware, which is strikingly
beautiful. The order also includes Roman
punch glasses, finger bowls, individual
buffers, ice cream plates, ice cream trays,
caratfes, pitchers and 1agons. Many of
the large pieces are dazzling in their per-
feet beauty. Some of the workmanship
has been so carefully executed that it
might be called art work. No pains have
been spared to make each piece as perfect
as possible. The slightest flaw that ONLY
a trained eye can see dOOms the most val
liable piece, so that its only use thereafter
is as broken glass to be remelted. Of
the 100 workmen in the shop only TWEEN
ty of the best ones are employed on this
order.
The design engraved on the ice cream
plates, glasses, and other articles in the
set consists OF the American eagle perch
ed on a shield above the words "E Pluri-
bus Unum.' 1t is the design that has
always ornamented ware for the White
House. The order for this ware is the
outcome OF an appropriation by Congress-.
and is only a part of what is laid out for
each President in the White House. The
goods will be shipped to Washington on
Oct. l, TO be ready for the White House
when the winter season opens.
The glass works in question was remov-
cd hare from RrO0klvn IN 1853 In Drapf
dent Grants administration the former
shop supplied the White House with
glassware. This establishment is now
busy on the order from President Cleve-
land. All the work for both shops is
turned out IN the rough by the glass fac
tory. The process OF glass manufacture
WAS watched with intense interest by
thousands at the Centennial Exposition,
so attractive is the tairy-like work. Sew
enty-ive out Of every 100 persons, howey-
er, even in Corning, cannot explain the
process to visitors with whom they inVa-
riably inspect the works.
Berkshire county, Mass, furnishes the
purest sand for the manufacture of glass.
In order that the sand may be melted, it
IS mixed with salt-petre, bOrax, arsenic,
sulphate Of potash, and lead oxine, great
care being taken that the mixture shall
be always exact. This is placed in a cru
chile. ten crucibles composing q furnace.
The Corning Works have three furnaces
of thirty crucibles; one furnace, however,
is now unemployed. When the sand and
its ingredients are heated thirty-six hours
glass blowers receive the molten glass,
and shape il by hand or in molds, as the
job requires, the glass yielding as readily
to the blower as molasses candy to the
c%OnfectiOner.
From the workmen who shape il quickly
into any conceivable form, IL goes to the
annealing or hardening ovens, passes
from the hot to the cool end IN a period
from eight to twenty hours, and is then
ready to be smoothed by the grindstOnes.
The work for the White House in the
blowing room here was done entirely by
hand, no molds being used. There was
included in it some 9%old-ruby ware, which
requires unusual skill in manufacture.
A stones throw south Of the factory is
the large cutting shop. Following the
fifty dozen of White House ware to the
glass cutters bench, it is hard to tell
whether one is most interested in the
blowers, who, ~magician-like, gave form to
shapeless Jumps of molten glass, or In
these cutters, from whose hands comes
the sparkling ware, that shines with the
brilliancy of ten thousand olOsely-set
Jewels, The process here seems simple
enough. The glass ware first goes to the
roughers, who, with iron wheels, smooth
the surfaces, square the edges, and cut
the pattern on roughly. Then to the fin
Usher, who, with his rapidly-revolving
grIudstone, finishes the pattern upon the
piece, a task requiring a steady hand and
a skillful eye. The polisber, with a
wooden wheel and the operation OF the
brush wheel completes the job. Water
and sand constantly drip upon the wheels,
,w,I Nk,. rurnwL - m naFraf Goa fhnf tho ndmnE
are always sharp and the sides smooth.
The patterns on the glassware consist OF
sets Of parallel lines, crossing at different
angles, and forming many-sided diamonds
and stars, which are changed by addi-
tional complex cuts.