The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-11-21
INTERESTING ABUUT GLASS.

On next tuesday the patent Office at
Washington will issue to ROGER S. PEAsE,
OF Minnesota. five patents for plate-glass
making machinery. tits claimed his process
will revolutionize the glass industry With
the new machinery Mr.. PEAsE contends he
can manufacture plate glass for 10 cents
foot, which now costs seven times as much.
He has spent fortune in pertecting his
methods and has been working at his in
vention for twenty years.
Less than a quarter of a century ago all
the plate glass used in this country was i'm
ported from France and Germany at a
cost of 80 per square foot. Now there
are eight manufactures in the United
States making this article employing 900
men, women and boys. The competition
of the world was cut off by
the high tariff duty and do
mestic competition killed by = COM
bination, or trust. In less than twenty
years, H. c. DEPAUw, of New Albany, accu,
mulated wealth of SIS, 600, 900, and other
manufacturers have been similarly for
tunete. The profits of the Pittsburg plate
glass factory are said TO be Sl,00O,O00 per
annum, clearing 35 per cent. of its capital.
In the face of facts like these, the plate
glass men were by the MCKINLEY tariff
given a higher degree of protection than
before. On glass such as is used in store
windows, the rate went up to 153 per cent.
The makers of window glass formed their
trust under the very eyes of the House
committee on ways and means, of which
MCKINLEY was chairman, and before the
bill was reported had raised the price of
glass five different times. 1t has been
charged and not denied that the secretary
of the treasury has pecuniary interest in
this trust which contributed literally to
MCKINLEY's congressional campaign last
year and to his canvass for governor this
fall
1t Is not surprising that the plate and
the window glass trusts have been vigor
ously opposing the issue of the PEAsE pat
ents, the operation of which will naturally
wipe out their business, since with their
processes they cannot compete The new
invention consists in rolling the plate glass
materinl on vertical instead of horizontal
surface to the exact thickness wanted, thus
avoiding the expense of grinding down
and polishing
Some Of the plate glass now made in the
Uuited States is superior to any in the
world, and can be produced of any size re-
quired. The materials used in the manu-
facture are chiefly white silica and
lead, of both of which this country
has furnished the purest samples. In the
annealing processes the pots or crucibles
are Of kind Of clay, or potter's earth, of
which several states of the union supply
specimens unequaled anywhere. In one
county OF Missouri, of which the writer
has knowledge, every ingredient that goes
into the manufacture of the finest glass is
found In almost inexhaustible Quantities
For long time these materials were shin
ped to Pittsburg and other points to be re-
turned IN the manufactured article. At
this time one Of the most extensive plate
glass factories in the world is situated a.
Crystal City, Mo-, near noted lead mines
and contiguous TO immense fields of trans
parent and glistening white SAND.
There is scarcely another object which
serves so completely to illustrate the rapa.
city OF the protectionists as glass and glass.
ware. The production Of glass can hardly
be called an infant industry, since it was
introduced into this country In thelast CEN
fury. at Lenox, Massachusetts, where this
Mr.. PEAsE, who has just triumphed over
the combine, learned his trade. The conn
mon kinds OF glass were taxed by the
United States as early as 1889. The DUTY
under the tariff of 1888 was 40 per cent. ad
valorem. to which MCKINLEY added 20 per
cent Glass ohimneys, for instance. were
45 per cent. till the new tariff raised them
to 60. All articles of glass, cut, engraved,
painted, carved stained or decorated were