The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-01-29
EXPLODING GLASSWARE.

Fragments Without Apparent cause
Spontaneous explosions Of glass
wareP' said W. II. Roby. of the Boston
and Sandwich Glass Company in reply.
to q query. .'Oh. yes, il have often
heard of ssch thing. 1t occurs not
infrequently in lamp chimneys, espec-
tally OF the sort commonly known as
the ..unbreakable.' These chimneys
may be thrown or kicked about on the
floor with impunity. and will seldom
break by such usage. They have even
been used as hammer to drive nails
with. and yet they will often explode
without any warning, and apparently
without cause. The other day gentle
man came in here on the same erran d,
to inquire concerning exploding CHM
news. He said that y few evenings pre-
vious his wife was about lighting large
parlor lamp. The chimney, which was
large and heavy, had been removed and
was resting upon TIE table near by.
when suddenly it exploded. with sharp
report, co cring the table with rag
ments of glass.
81 have heard of an instance in which
a chimney, after being cleaned, wss
placed in saucer upon a pantry shelf.
Not long after strange cracking sound
wn9 heard in the pantry. Investigation
showed that the saucer was filled wi u
millions of minute particles of glass
which were still stirring and cracking
Evidently the chimney had sponta
neously crumbled to fragments in this
instance. instead of exploding. as in the
case of the other. Such occurrences are
not at all uncommon, though they can
scarcely be said to be frequent. They
are, perhaps, more common in lamp
chimneys than in other wares. / have
known chimney attached to = lamp
suspended over dinner table to fly into
fragments without apparent cause,
spreading CONSERVATION among the
guests and spelling the dinner. A mill
lion minute particles of glass scattered
over dinner table is not conducive to a
good appetite. But then. Ihave known
other articles of glassware to explode,
sometimes with loud report, tumblers,
goblets and wine glasses sometimes fly
ing into fragments without tie .leas
warning. Such occurrences a hundred
years ago were undoubtedly regarded as
supernatural.
i.What ia the cause of such explo
sionsp"
s.They may be traced to a variety OF
causes. A lamp chimney, when heated,
will sometimes break from unequal ex-
pansion. Carelessly made chimnevs
often vary in thickness. and thus the
expansion BY heat is unequalin different
places; hence the breakage. But CHM
neys when not in use and other ARTICLES
of glassware which explode suddenly.
areimproperly or imperfectly annea!ed.
Snow, here are these inkstands,"
continued Mr.. ROXY, taking from the
table large square inkstand of solid
crystal, 'they are liable to break direct
~ across the center as even IS though
cut by diamond. They are SO thick
that they are cooled unevenly in the an
healing process, and the weakest point
is through the center. One may last q
lifetime and enc may break in . night,
and the janitor or Office boy be blamed
Tor his carelessness the next day."
Mr.. Dongherty, an old. practical
glass-maker, for many years in the en-
ploy of the New England Glass Works
ut Cambridge, said:
sit is not uncommon for glassware in
various forms I'd explode without warn
ing and often with q sharp report /
remember that as much as forty years
ago it was not uncommon for people
to rush to the works, as pale as ghosts,
saying that dozen tumblers upon q
shelf had exploded. and they were
afraid that it foretold death or other
calamity in the family 1t was the old
superstition. you see. But it was only
imperfect annealing that caused it. The
art was not understood SO well in those
days as now. There is one odd thing.
that tumbler or goblet which is badly
annealed will explode If q spoon, fork
or other hard substance is stirred about
in it,
YES" interrupted bystander; 81
remember hearing Of gentleman who
left q wine glass with q spoon in it ON
a sideboard while he left the room for
a moment. When he returned the
spoon was lying on the marble and the
sideboard was covered with fragments
of glass. As no one had been near 1t
the gentleman was greatly mystified
THAT'S it." said Mr.. Dougherty.
1.-THE weight of the spoon in the wine
glass caused it to explode. Why 1t is,
[ don't know. but it is so.
What is the annealing prccessP"
was asked.
THE articles of glass, after they are
finished, are placed in an oven about
seventy-five feet long, which is heated
to about two hundred degrees at one end
and is cold 1t the other. The glass Is
placed at the hot end. and when thor
oughly heated is moved two feet away
from the Ere In . few moments it IS
moved two feet farther away. and so on
At intervals until it reaches the cold end.
In this way it is gradually and evenly
cooled. This is called annealing, and
when this is properly done the glass is
not so liable to break spontaneously"
IF this is the final process. much Of
your stock must be broken before it
reaches the ovensP''
s'Fully one-half is broken before it il
ready for the market, and has 10 go into
the pot and be melted over. We have