The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-04-04
MAKING GLASS.
The Blowers Skill is Something
Marvellous.
IN A FLINT-GLASS MANDATORY,
Good Workmen Get $40 Per Day, and
They Certainly Earn It-A Trop-
lcal Temperature.

A person who visits glass manufac.
tory for the first time is forcibly I'M
pressed with its resemblance to a huge
ant-hill.
Outside, the building is dingy with
SCOT and time, and the roof swells up
ward and appears to rest its weight
upon the great chimney which rises
from it's center. All about the numerous
doorways and under the dust-opaque
windows lie heaps of worthless glass and
scrap iron which the workmen have
brought out from the building. Inside,
everything is hustle and ceaseless activ-
ity-just what would be expected of an
anthill. The workers are running here
and there with glowing pendants of
molten glass on the ends of their blow
pipes; cars with completed articles,
yet hot and soft, are being trundled
from the furnace to the annealing
room, and the furnacemen are fitting
swiftly back and forth among the blaz-
ing "glory holes" where the glass is
melted. The air. even in midwinter, is
kept at a tropical temperature, and the
workmen rush about half-clad, often
showing the brown muscles of their
breasts and arms. And splendid-look-
ing men they are. too; big and power
full, with sufficient strength to blow
and swing weight of glass which an
ordinary man could scarcely lift
/ Their movements are also marked with
an easy dizziness and delicacy of touch
which comes only with long training
in the manufacture of such fragile
substance as glass. In intelligence
and wages they are a good deal above
the ordinary workman, and perhaps
no class of artisans is better organized
for its own protection.
The object which first attracts the
affection of visitor in the ant-hill is
the great coneshaped furnace at the
center. the top of which dwindles into
the chimney before it reaches the roof
The furnace is constructed of fire.
brick, and it has two kinds of OPEN
ings, one of which is used to reach the
big melting pots containing the molten
glass, and the other, the GLORY hole, "
provides a place into which the work
man may thrust his half blown cylin-
der and soften it with heat. The fuel
now used, for the most part, is crude
oil or gas. coal being too smoky to give
the best results. Above the fire and
just inside the furnace stand the melt.
ing or monkey pots, usually in a
circle, with an opening from each tc
the workroom. These monkey -pots
are the very backbone of the whole
establishment, and unless the manufac
turer understands how to construc
!, them SO that they will not burst whe1
the fierce heat necessary to melt tn,
glass is irst applied, he would BETTE
, go out of the business.
, They are usually made by an exper
workman in the shop where they ar
q to be used. Fireclay having been i'm
, ported from st. Louis. it is mixed will
, the finely ground remains of forme
@ monkey pots. 1t is then moistene,
p and placed i'll trough, much like tn
ordinary bakers dough trough. and
workman walks mp and down throug
it, kneading it with his feet until i
g becomes perfectly homogeneous mas
y of about the consistency of putty
! The expert now begins to work on tn
a pot, building up the sides handful b
' handful and taking the utmost car
/ that nc air bubbles are left in the clay
o for he knows that in that case the pc
will surely break and probably will
q waste half ton or more of metal
p as the molten glass is called.
t When the pot is there feet high an
= about four wide-large enough to hol
!. a ton of metal is placed in
Q warm, dry room and allowed to renal
v there for two months or more. Whe
o the expert things that it is sufficient
e dry it is removed to the annealing ROOF
= where the temperature is gradual
raised to that of the furnace, gres
S care being taken to prevent any col
G drafts from cracking the pot. Whe
J. baked it is bricked into the main ful
It mace with its yawning mouth to tn
e little doorway and its bottom extendin
a far into the heat below. The fir
y charge Of glass serves to glaze the il
a side of the pot. Open pots are used fc
d melting ordinary window-glass meta
but with f1int-glass where create
purity is required they are arched wit
fire-clay, with hole left in one sid
So IL.