Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-06-12

rse VERY INTERESTING PROCESS
WILDLY DESCRIBED.

Flint glass is either blown, nodded or
pressed. and frequently all three me'h-
DDS NAV be seen together in the s"ilo
establishment -.
A flint glass factory is most enter
tanning medley of mar7els' AS 70"
enter the great building that surrounds
the huge chimney the first impression Is
that YOU are in human ant hili ruihpiihS
with inordinate activity. Or perhaps
the sensation is better described as
plunge into purgatorial chamber OF IN
dustrious demons. In the center ',e
openings in the gigantic furnace aazA'e
you like glaring eyes from a soul OF i'Ie'
but the glow comes really from molten
olass 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 ana watch
closely, and you will see it is all 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 pitchtorks
into the blazing depths to toast their
victims, are only gathering metal on
their punties. When a sufficiently large
ump has been collected the man wan
ders off with it, You think he will GER
tainly burn some one with that burning
ball of fire, they are all busting about
him so necessarily But follow him
carefully and you see him silently hand
the tube to an older man, who blows the
glass into a large globe and sits down 10
NAV with it at a bench, which has a
horizontal bar on each side OF him to
roll the tube on Back and forth he
rolls it like toy, and the glass keeps
curously changing its shape. He has
made a hole in the globe and enlarged 1t
into symmetrical opening, and now the
glass is cooled SO that he can do nothing
more. Will anybody in all that hurry
inc crowd help to help him? Instantly
young man appears, and without a word
he holds up to the cool glass his long
tube with a 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 GLORY 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
a perfect lamp shade, which q stroke
detaches 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 gatherer is on hand again with
a 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 a
man amusing himself with a 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 aud YOU cannot trace him. 1t has
gone over to fancy vase, where it was
needed to complete the ornament. Sc
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 OWL
particular duties He pops up always ii
the moment and place where he is needed
WORKING IN TEAMS.
All the workers are busy as their witt
can make them, for they work by the
piece, and the number of things mad,
determinethei wages. They are grouped
into sets or shops of three or four, wht
work together and share profits togethe
on well understood grade of division
Generally four constitute a shop, th,
most skilful workman (the blower a
/, the head, the gatherer "a young fellow
next, and two boys, one handling mold
or tools, and the other carrying the prod
ucts to the annealing oven The onl,
way to learn She glass trade is through
long apprenticeship in these four stages
And no apprentice is permitted to ente
the full privilege and wages of a maste
workman without the consent of the or
der. BY this severe means of apprentice
ship the glass workers keep the skill o
their trade in their own control, mucl
like the old Venetian artisans, and prac
tically dictate their own prices to EN-
ployers.
The best wages in the glass industr
are received by the window glass blow
ers, sometimes reaching Sl2 per day
The master meters rank next. thong
] frAt ho1 L.,
amount. From these earnings the price
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 work
eight or ten hours at a stretch, finishin
> one melt of glass; There are four or fiv
melts every week, each requiring six
teen hours to fuse, ten hours az BLOWN
and ten hours of hattening The wor
is always by the piece, and in teams c
IN shops, each composed of one ma,
ter workman and several younger assist
ants
There are in operation about 100 fun
naces, at which there are employe
: about four thousand blowers, gatherer
hatteners and cutters. They are boun
together by union that dictates tn
quantity each workman may make, IL
? number of apprentices that may be take
p. generally not more than two to a flu
nace), that prohibits any foreign worl
. man from getting place in the factorie
!, or any glass from being made in Il
= months of July and August The ave
age time they have worked in the la
four years has been less than eiql