Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-11-13
INVENTIONS IN GLASS
FREAKS OF vITREous INGENUITY IN
THE PATENT OFFICE.

| Cl.ss Houses to Live In, Glass Clothing to
Wear and q Glass Co6in to Rest In at
Last-Strange and Uncommon Devices
That Are Not Yet Publicly Known.
There is an inventor who is knows at
the patent Office in Washington as the
glass man. His name is c. W. Mclean OF
New Bern, n. c., and during the last
| few years he has obtained patents for
surprising number of devices in glass.
| Among these is a glass coffin. which Is
! guaranteed proof against decay and rats
So long as no deliberate attempt is made
to smash it it ought to last forever. An
| other continuance is staircase made
wholly of glass; steps, landings and newell
post being all of that material. Yet an
other is glass barrel. But perhaps the
most remarkable invention of the glass
man is billiard table of glass.
| The day may yet arrive when people will
| live in glass houses A patent has been Sc
cured by another inventor for glass bricks
of a peculiar pattern. The material of
which they are composed being a first rate
nonconductor, these bricks will keep the
cold out of dwelling built of them, while
admitting the light. 1t is claimed they
will exclude noise, being hollow Further
more, the inmates of glass house need
not be afraid of being under too close OBJ
servation by neighbors, inasmuch as it is
not requisite that the bricks shall be trans
parent. They may be of opaque ground
| glass or of any color that may be suitable
for decorative effect.
Thus before many years have passed it
may be considered the height of luxury to
occupy dwelling of glass. Glass bricks,
of course, are expensive. People who live
| in glass houses will be able to afford to
wear clothes of glass. That sounds like
nonsense, but the fact is that beautiful
and most delicate fabrics are made out of
spun glass. Nearly 20 years ago there was
shown at the Centennial exposition in
| Philadelphia a bonnet composed entirely
| of glass 1t was q love of bonnet. The
flowers on it We're glass, and so were the
ribbons, which looked like the finest satin.
| The patentee of this process describes it as
suitable for the manufacture of neckties,
shawls, table covers, etc.
In fabrics of this kind a very fine quail
| ity of glass is used. 1t is spun in threads
of exceeding delicacy, and of these several
| colors may be produced at the same time.
| They are woven in loom OF ordinary pat
tern. Anybody may observe that a thin
sheet of glass is somewhat elastic. The
threads employed in weaving are of such
fineness as to be perfectly pliable and not
at all brittle. With a gown of glass would
naturally go pair of glass slippers
| A Pittsburg man named Smith has in
vented a process for making glass slippers
in molds. They would not do very well
for dancing. There is no reason why u
y i L.
cent glass, SO that the wearer would look
like an animated rainbow on a ballroom
floor-one dazzling simmer of ever chang
ing hues. Until recently the manufacture
of iridescent glass was set down in the list
of the lost arts. But in 1878 it was redisGov-
ered and now it is a common commercial
article 1t is made by exposing the melted
glass to the vapors of salts of sodium. AT
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New
York city, are exhibited great numbers of
bottles, plates and other articles of glass
which were made and used long before
Christ was born. They were dug up in
Cyprus and elsewhere. Many of them
have beautiful iridescenco, but it is
the result of decay Glass will rot like
anything else, and decay has split the
structure OF this ancient glass into laminp,
to produce brilliant red, green, purple and
other rainbow colors.
The window blinds of the glass house of
the future will be of glass of course That
is another patent, and the inventor sug-
gests that such blinds may be II. sde of
whatever colors are desired. Baby in the
nursery perhaps will play with glass build
ing blocks and at suitable age he will re-
celve a Christmas gift of pair of roller
skates with glass rollers. Both of these
ideas have been patented. When he is old
enough to go fishing, he will not dig
worms in the garden, but will be provided
with artificial bait in the shape of a hol
low minnow of glass, coated on the inside
partly with q solution of gold or silver and
partly with IL luminous paint.
Glass bedsteads may be proof against
lightning and bugs, but it is hardly to be
expected that glass houses should be free
from mice. The inmates could hardly do
better than to employ glass traps for the
capture of such vermin. The great ad
vantage of the glass mousetrap, according
to the statement of the inventor is that
''if one mouse enter the trap he may be
seen by Others who chance to go that way,
and they will be inclined to join the one
inside, especiallt when they observe that
he is nibbling q choice morsel." Up to
date the glass mousetrap has not made it
self popular, notwithstanding the impor-
tant arguments in its favor, and of most of
the other devices described it is unfortu-
nately true that they have not proved prof
liable to the persons who contrived them
This remark, however, by no means ap-
plies to the glass lemon squeezer, which is
already familiar household utensil. The
inventor of il is said to have sold his rights
for $50, 900. One of the most remarkable
inventions iii glass, by the way, was that
of Venetian named Joquin, in 1866. He
noticed that the scales of fish called the
bleak gave milky hue to the water, and
that glass beads dipped into such water
looked like pearls when dried. Subsc-
quently the idea was conceived Of making
hollow beads of glass and lining them with
the peculiar substance from the scales of
the fish, and it is in this way that the so
called Roman pearls are now manufac-
| tured. Ii Is TO this substance that tho