Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-17
CHATS WITH PEOPLE.
A Belgian Glass Manufacturer Dis
courses About Furnaces,
AND DECLARES IN FAVOR OF TANKS
DR.. Evans Strikes Anarchists a Sledge
Hammer Blow in the Neck.
HOW MENINGITIS SHOES WERE SH1NED

Mons. Georges Deprez is a Belgian gen.
tleman who is staying at the Duquesne. He
is general secretary of the Glassware Com
pany of Val Saint Lambert, Belgium, one
of the most extensive in the country, and is
here to improve his knowledge of the States
as well as to attend to his business interests
The Val Saint Lambert Company manu-
facture cut, decorated and pressed glass
ware, and have good connection in New
York and Chicago for their wares. In this city
its trade is small. The company prosecutes
its business here in face of 45 per cent
duty and heavy transportation charges, but
finds its largest markets in China, India and
Turkey. Skilled glassworkers in Belgium
receive as high as $50 per month, but the
average rate which glassworkers are paid is
$50 a month. The factories are in operation
all the year round; work, in brisk times,
being carried on on Sunday. The
hours of work are from to 6
with two intervals of one hour each for
meals. Fuel is an expensive item, the cur
rent price of coke ruling at So 80 per 2, 900
pounds. Regarding the relative merits of
pot and tank furnaces, Mons. Deprez said:
POTS GOING OUT OF DATE.
1.-THE use of pot furnaces for the manu-
in Belgium and the few firms which still
held to their use are not making any profit
from them. may say that the entire out
put of window glass in Belgium is the
product of tanks. Among the largest manu-
facturers in this line are Jonet, of Lodelin-
sart, with four tanks of an average capacity
of each 200 pounds; Casimer Lambert,
of Charleroi, who has one tank and 48 pots
the tank capacity is about 300, 900 pounds;
Bandourg, of Lodelinsart, with four tanks,
and who makes colored window glass
speciality: Leon Mondron, of Charleroi, and
Verreries, of Iumet, all of whom use tanks
exclusively. Mariemont has the largest
tank in Belgium, its capacity being 700,000
pounds. He has one 150, 900 pounds and "a
pots. The feeling in Belgium is against the
use of too large tanks. They are made, not
ali, on the same plan, and there are about
dozen different designs in use.
''In what are the tanks superior to the pot
furnaces, Mons. Deprez?"
SIN every single particular. First, it is
found they are more economical as regards
fuel, serious item when coke costs any
thing from 50 80 to S4 per 1000 pounds.
Then the quality of the tank glass can
always be depended upon. In pots one may
produce good quality, while its neighbor
will be found very inferior, and the third
may be so dirty as to yield but very small
percentage of good qualities. Then again
the yield of best qualities from the tanks is
very much above that of the pots; the aver
age percentage of best qualities from the
pots being from 80 to 60 per cent, while the
tanks yield fully 90 per cent o. bests
STILL USING TAN Ks.
'In my factory we still adhere to pots, of
which we have over 300. Wecould not use
tanks because it is found thai only in pots
can pure white glass be made. 1t is i'm
material in the window glass trade if the
glass is slightly colored, but p the pressed
and cut glass trade the glass mist, of course,
be of pure white.
"In my opinion it is only question when
the tank furnace will entirely supersede the
pot and its use become universal"
"How will American competition affect
the Belgian glass trade?"
"Ah p said Mons. Duprez, With depre-
catory shrug of the shoulder, I'VE shall
have ceased to do business with you in an
other few years. You have skilled meckan-
ics and greater facilities than we possess.
Your work is better than ours in pressed
and decorated ware, owing to the superiority
of your molders. We have two American
mold makers in our factory, and their work
is very far superior to the Belgian. Ii
few years we are prepared to find cesa-
tion of the export of Belgian window ghss
to America. Then will stop the pressed
ware branch, and finally the plate ghss
trade"
Mons. Duprez said that the proper form
or design of tank could only be aser-
tanned from experience in its use, and that
it usually took four or five years to brint
tank down to its best work. Alterations
we're necessary from time to time to remedy
defects which only could be discovered in
the course of time. Very large tanks were
found to be failure, the best results being
obtained from tanks of from 150, to 4O,-
600 mounds capacitv