Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1889-07-05
NO. 27.
FIint GLASS Making.

n Hint glass factory is a most entertain
ing medley Of marvels. As you enter the
great building that surrounds the huge chin
ney the first impression is that YOU are in a
human ant.hll rumbing with inurdinate
activity. Or perhaps the sensation is better
/ described as Il plunge into a purgaturial
chamber Of industrious demons In the
centre the openings Of the gigantic furnace
dazzle you like glaring eyes from soul Of
fire but the glow comes really from moult
EN- glass IN the dozen monkey. pots" about
the blaze. Scores Of workers, boys, youths,
and men, throng in restless confusion. It
| looks as If every one were running about
ON some impish deed of his own fancy.
Stand sill and watch closely, and you will
see 1t is all a great system Of human clock
work, each movement fitting nicely into the
whole effect The men at the furnace, who
seemed at first TO be devils thrustng pitch
forks 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 wanders off with
it. You think he will certainly burn some
one with that burning ball of fire, they are
all bustling about him 50 incessantly. But
follow him carefully and you see him silent
ly hand the tube to an older man, who blows
the glass into large globe, and sits down
to play with it at a bench which has IA hor-
rizontal bar on each side of him to roll the
tube on. Back and forth he rolls it like a
toy, and the glass keeps curiously changing
ITS shape. He has made hole in the globe
and has enlarged it into a symmetrical open
ing, and now the glass has cooled so that he
can do nothing more. Will anybody in all
that hurrying crowd help him Instantly
a young man appears and without word
he holds up to 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 the
bar. OF the other man runs with it to the
glory hole, where the broken end is quick
ly heated again into softness. Then he hur-
ries back with it to the bench man, who re
news his play. A couple of minutes more
and suddenly you perceive that he has made
perfect lamp shade which a stroke de
taches from the iron rod into a small bed of
sand. A small boy carries it off on "a stick
TO the annealing furnace, and now the gath
erer is on hand again with fresh lump of
metal to begin the process again.
Turn to the next man sitting at his work,
and you notice him finishing smaller charge
into lamp chimney, shaping the top by "A
mould. Here is a man amusing himself
with small bunch of soft glass on a rod.
You are sure he can have no serious pur-
pose in turning aud bending it into those
ridiculous shapes. Quickly boy seizes it
from him, and you cannot trace him 1t
has gone over to "A fancy vase where it was
needed to complete the ornament. So 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 man has his own particular duties
He pops up always in the moment and place
where he is needed All the workers are
busy as their wits can make them, for they
work by the piece, and the number of things
made determines their wages They are
grouped together into sets or "shops' of
three or four, who work together and share
profits ON we'll understood grade of divis-
ion. Generally four constitute a shop, the
most skilful workman (the blower at the
head, the gatherer "a young fellow next,
and two boys, one handling mOulds or tools,
and the other carrying the products to the
annealing oven. The only way 10 learn the
glass trade is through long apprenticeship
in these four stages. And no apprentice is
permitted to enter the full privilege and
wages of a master workman without the
consent of the order. By this severe means
of apprenticeship the glass workers keep
the skill Of their trade in their own control,
much like the old Venetian artisans, and
practically dictate their own prices to en-
ployers. -Hdrper's Magdziie for Juig.