Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-07-01
MAKING OF GLASS.
Interesting and Instructive to
the Many Visitors.
Worlds Fair Glass Factory---making
Cut Glassware--Spinning Glass.
All naanss u csstty I'D cAsaS Glass seen o.
midway piaisaaes.

All naanss u cssiiy I'D Cheap Glass Seen o.
| Midway pIaisaaes.
woMp's FAM, June So fSpsciall =
| For some Of the most interesting features
of the fair the enterprise Of American
manufacturers 10 to be given credit. On
the Midway plaisance. for instance, where
there is an assemblaSe Of savage life and
strange peoples from all over the world.
there is NO more interesting exhibit than
that made by firm of glass blowers.
They have erected here q complete plant,
with steam engines, . great furnace, ma
chinery of all sorts, and perhaps 800 work
men and statesmen Here they carry on
the whole business Of glass making, blow
ing, moulding, coloring. cutting. If one
may judge by the popularity of the factory
among the visitors to the fair not many Of
our people have had the pleasure of seeing
the glass making process. Great crowds
are constantly passing in and out the
doors 1t is not a free show. either, though
the admission fee is only 10 cents, and this
| IL tA thp k4LSAiaop PiASc VA ohy
article you may wish to buy within. The
proprietors say they charge even this
small sum not for the sake of revenue, but
to prevent their place being uncomfort-
| ably crowded as would be the case if there
were no admission fee whatever.
Entering this Worlds fair glass factory
you find yourself near the base of a big
| glass furnace. Through the little doors
which the workmen open now and then
| you may see the mass Of molten glass
| within, red and glowing. One of the
| blowers sticks his tube through the open
door, WORMS it around in there for mo-
ment, and withdraws it with a small
| quantity of molten metal adhering to the
end. He lifts this in the air, blows through
| the tube with his lungs, and initiates the
mass of molten stuff to a globule. BY
| rolling it upon hard, smooth surface he
causes the bulb to assume any form he
wishes, an electric light globe, a tumbler,
| vase, saucer fiower-holder. He
i adorns it with glass of various colors
| which is wound upon his globe much as a
cord is wound on bobbin in spinning
| machine He fashions the exterior Of his
bulb in various forms by rolling it along
patterns The whole process is so simply
and quickly done, the glowing mass OF
glass being handled as if it were plaster OF
| clay, that one is amazed.
The cheaper line of work is going on at
the same time near by. This is what is
| known as pressed glass. One man reaches
into the furnace with y long tube, extracts
a small quantity of metal, plunges it into
a mould, another man cutting OIL the
superfuous portion with Il pair of scissors,
lever is pulled and the piston Of the
mould comes down pressing the glass into
the shape of butter dish or cream
pitcher. In a trce the bit OF molten stuff
has been converted into u dish that is al |
most perfect A little finishing, a bit of
polishing done also by machinery, will
make it ready for the market; and when it
is done it will be thing of beauty, bright
and glistening, almost as clear and fine as
cut glass itself, and yet very cheap. This
is but one of an almost infinite variety OF
methods by which modern manufacturers
produce the most beautiful articles at
prices within the reach of the multitude. |
The bowls, pitchers and glasses which
are to be decorated by hand are produced
in the same way, though of finer material
and more careful workmanship. The
beauty of cut glass consists not SO much
in the quality of the material as in the ex-
guisite nature of the work put upon it.
In this Worlds fair glass factory you may
see glass-cutting in all its phases. A dozen
or more young men sit before emery
wheels working by steam power with
streams of water trickling down upon
their peripheries, grinding and cutting the
surfaces of the glass dishes according to
the patterns which have been chalked
upon them in the pattern room. To pro-
duce perfect cut glass rose bowl of med !
ium size one young man will work for a
week or more, and thus you may see why
it is that cut glassware costs so much !
money He must grind and grind, cut
and cut, hour after hour to produce the al
most innumerable prisms which reflect
the rays Of light like diamond and make
| this product of the glass-blower's art like
the finest precious stones.
There are single pieces of cut glass in
this exhibit which represent months
hard work by the most skillful of me
chanics in the grinding and polishing
alone, and perhaps two weeks more Of
work in superintendent, inspection, fin
| ishiug and assistance. The result of all
this effort is glorious, and costly.
Some of the most beautiful souvenirs of
the exposition are made in glass. All sorts
of articles have pictures of the principal
| exposition buildings within them in deli
cate lines. On some you may have your
| name engraved while you wait These en-
graved souvenirs are very popular and
/ large Numbers of them are sold every day.
/ But the most wonderful thing in the
show is the glass fabric. One of the
workmen in this concern discovered some
time ago that he could spin glass into
| threads of even size and texture just as
wool or cotton is spun. He talked to the
proprietor about it, and the result was
( that the firm decided to make a speciality
IF spun glass articles in case they could
! find sale for them. They began in mod
/ est way, but their wares, on account OF
novelty as well as beauty, have attained
: such popularit Y that glass spinning is now
/ nm important feature Of the business. 1t
| would he di.licult to imagine anything
| more dazzling and curious than this pro-
cess. The inolten glass Is spun out into a
| long thread by the rotation Of spindle,
| and on being cooled is wound around
bobbin precisely as one would wind yarn,
| though of course the diameter of the spool
| is pretty large. The makers say the glass
spins cut in very even thickness, and
runs surprisingly ''true.n From the spin
ming it goes to the loom. One girl cuts
| the threads into the proper lengths and in
spects them for faults. Another operates
/ the loom. Each glass thread is laid in by
hand, and careful movement of the ma
chine pushes it to its place in the fabric.
| Then another thread is put in, and so
thread by thread the metal textile grows.
1t is slow work, nimble fingered girl.
1 with one assistant, beingabie to make bus
quarter of yard Of glass cloth in day.
| Naturally glass cloth Is expensive. Sixty
dollars yard is the present price, and !.
Is easy to figure out from this basis what
the value Of dress pattern would
be. The firm is now making = glass
/ gown for this Princess d. Eulalia,
who saw some of the fabric and
| the method OF making it a few weeks ago,
during her visit to the fair. and was
/ greatly impressed with it. The value of
the princess glass gown will be something
like 81 co.
This fabric, contrary to'general expecta-
tion, is suf5 and silken. There is nothing
! harsh or brittle about IL. 1t il u sheen Of
jewels IL is the finest of silks plastered
over with CRY stalls. Glass fabric has this
advantage over most other fabrics, it will
! not wear out. 1t does not tarnish in
water, and if stained by foreign sub
stance may be washed with soap and
/ water or with chemicals without in any