Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-05-24
HOW Glass IS MADE.
Remarkable improvements Invented By
American Genius.

Remarkable improvements Invented By
American Genius.
The making of glass is one of the
occupations which has not yet been
made TO a large extent matter OF
machinery. The finer qualities OF
glass, and. in fact. nearly ali kinds Of
dishes and bottles. except those made
of American pressed glass" are still
made by hand; and the heat in the
works is so extreme that the workmen
are generally very short-lived. In the
French glass works. where hand meth
ODDS are still almost exclusively en-
ployed, glass-blower does not expect
to live and be able to continue his
work more than six or eight years.
He is constantly hard at work over
furnace heated to terrible tempera-
ture. dipping the end of his blowing
iron into the molten glass. blowing il
into great bubble, adding other bub-
bles. and skilfully shaping the mass
until the tumbler, or the article he lie
making. whatever it may be. is formed.
His tasks are divided into long and
trying periods, called Journeys.
occupied in making up each found
ing" or filing of the furnaces
A visit to a French glass-working
establishment reveals a number of pale,
STOPPING, emaciated men. who look as
if they were. and who often are. con-
sumptive. Each dainty article of their
manufacture has cost a part of a mans
life. To compensate these men for the
sacrifice they make-for the steady
baking. burning. suffocating which
they endure, and for the shortening of
their lives that their employment
means-the French glass-wOrkers are
paid very high wages for that country.
1--WE are selling our lives" they say,
land you must pay dear if you want
them"
Moreover, great deal of skill is
required to make a good glass-blower.
He is often paid as much as five dollars
a day. and sometimes more. Lately
no little dismay has been caused
among the French glass-blowers by
reports that means of making glasses
and other articles hy machinery had
been invented, and that hand-workers
would not be much longer needed. The
American system of shaping glass by
mechanical pressure has also been cut
ting into French industry. The dis
tress of the French glass-blowers at
the prospect of losing some part of
their means of livelihood impresses one
French journalist as very remarkable.
in view of the murderous character of
the occupation. He can only compare
the men to the wife of Sganarelle. in
Moliere's comedy. who, having been
offered protection against her hus-
bands beatings, became very angry,
and asked:
well. what if prefer to be beaten?"
The glass-workers are. so to speak,
offered a means of escaping from being
roasted alive. but instead of accepting
it they say in effect: "Well, what if
we prefer to be roasted alive P"
As glass-blowing is their trade, they
can scarcely be blamed for objecting
to system which threatens to deprive
them of their means of livelihood.
Setting aside the process of making
pressed glass, there has been little
change in the methods of manufacture.
One of the largest of our American
glass manufacturers lately said that
the process of glass making is very
little altered since the Syrians practised
it twenty-five hundred years ago. The
most remarkable Improvements are
both of American invention. They
are two in mum Der: one is that of press
ing glass into shape by machinery,
already spoken of, and the other is the
sand-blast. by means of which glass
may be cut or worked into certain
shapes. or engraved upon. by the sand
being steadily blown into blast upon
the portions to be removed. The sand
blast works with great difficulty upon
soft or elastic. or tough. or stringy
substances. so that if n piece of lace be
put on a pane of glass exposed to a
sand-blast, the pattern will be cut on
the glass without injuring the lace
Youths Companion.