Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-08-20

Flint glass is either blown, nodded or
pressed. and frequently all three meth
DDS may be seen together in the same
establishment.
A flint glass factory is most enter
tanning medley of marvels. AS you
enter the great building that surrounds
the huge chimney the first impression is
that you are in human ant hill rumbling
with inordinate activity. Or perhaps
the sensation is better described as a
plunge into purgatorial chamber of in
dustrious demons. In the center the
openings in the gigantic furnace dazzle
you like glaring eyes from soul of fire;
but the glow comes really from molten
glass in the dozen monkey pots" about
the blaze. Scores of workers, boys,
youths and men, throng in restless con-
fusion. 1t looks as if every one were
running about On some impish deed Of
his own fancy. But stand still and watch
closely, and you will see it is all a great
system of human clockwork, each move
ment fitting nicely into the whole effect.
LOOKS LIKE HE WAS PLAYING.
The men at the furnace, who seemed
at first to be devils thrusting pitchforks
into the blazing depths to toast their
victims, are only gathering metal on
their punties. When a sufficiently large
lump has been collected the man wan
derS off with it. You think he viii GER
tainly burn some one with that burning
ball of fire, they are all busting about
90 5r1aA c,1fl cv tlfrf fnt nm
carefully and you see him silently hand
the tube to an older man, who blows the
glass into a large globe and sits down to
play with it at a bench, which has
horizontal bar on each side of him to
roll the tube on. Back and forth he
rolls it ike toy, and the glass keeps
curiously changing its shape. He has
made hole in the globe and enlarged it
into a symmetrical opening, and now the
glass is cooled SO that he can do nothing
more. VIII anybody in all that hurry
ing crowd help TO help him? Instantly
young man appears, and without q word
he holds up tc the cool glass his long
tube with disk of red hot glass on the
end, which fastens to it. The man at
the bench scratches the globe, jars it,
and it leaves his bar. Off the other man
runs with it to the 'sglory hole" where
the broken end is quickly heated again
into softness. Then he hurries back with
it to the bench man, who renews his
play. A couple OF minutes more and
suddenly you perceive that he has made
perfect lamp shade, which a stroke
detaches from the iron rod into small
bed of sand. A small boy carries it off
on stick to the annealing furnace, and
now the gatherer is on hand again with
fresh lump of metal to begin the pro-
cess again.
Turn to the next man sitting at his
work and you notice him finishing a
smaller charge into a lamp chimney,
shaping the top by mold. Here is
man amusing himself with q small bunch
of soft glass on his rod. You are sure
he can have no serious purpose in turn
ing and bending it into those ridiculous
shapes. Quickly a boy seizes it from
him and you cannot trace him. 1t has
gone over to fancy vase, where it was
each bench has its own little task of skill,
and keeps repeating it over and over.
and each boy Of the multitude there are
two or more to every mani has his own
particular duties. He pops up always in
the moment and place where he is needed.
WORKING IN TEAMS.
All the workers are busy as their wits
can make them, for they work by the
piece, and the number of things made
determine their wages They are grouped
into sets or ''shops" of three or four, who
work together and share profits together
on a well understood grade of division.
Generally four constitute a shop, the
most skilful workman Ghe blower at
the head, the gatherer "a young fellow
next, and two boys, one handling molds
or tools, and the other carrying the prod
ucts to the annealing oven. The only
way to learn the glass trade is through
long apprenticeship in these four stages.
And 10 apprentice is permitted to enter
the full privilege and wages of a master
workman without the consent of the or
der. BY this severe means of apprentice
ship the glass workers keep the skill of
their trade in their own control, much
like the old Venetian artisans, and prac-
tically dictate their own prices to en-
ployers.
The best wages in the glass industry
are received by the window glass blow
ers, sometimes reaching $l2 per day.
The master meters rank next though
they seldom get more than half that
amount. From these earnings the prices
slope down TO the small tending boys,
who are paid thirty cents for ten hours
work. The blowers occupation is labor
ious. but not unhealthful. He works
eight or ten hours at stretch, finishing
one melt of glass. There are four or five
melts every week, each requiring six
teen hours to fuse, ten hours of blowing
and ten hours of flattening. The work
is always by the piece, and in teams or
in ''shops," each composed of one mas
Ter workman and several younger assist.
ants.
There are in operation about 100 fur
naces. at which there are employed
about four thousand blowers, gatherers.
flatteners and cutters. They are bound
together by union that dictates the
quantity each workman may make, the
number of apprentices that may be taken
generally not more than two to fur
nace), that prohibits any foreign work
man from getting plaoe in the factories,
or any glass from being made in the
months of july and August The aver