New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-23

ting shop" sail the foreman as the visitor
marveled at the steadness of hand and &C
curacy Of eye which the worknen displayed.
"a must be steady to cut glass. The
slightest slip of a stone is fatal, and accidents
only too frequent with the steadest work.
A pebble in the sand will drive stone through
the glass; running it beyond repair. He must
have a sense of touch SO keen that he can feel
the exact depth to which his wheel penetrates,
whether it be a full half inch into some heavy
piece or hairs breadth into the side of a cham
payne glass"
From the smoothers stone the glass goes to
q polishing wheel OF poplar wood. which is fed
from tin cornucop:a suspended overhead with
a mixture Of water, pumice and rotten stone.
Then brush wheels are used. and a final polish
given with a cork wheel moistened with putty
powder a wheel Of felt. on other ldthes men
are grinding shoppers into bottles for every cut
glass bottle has its own stopper. just as each
has his own hat. and other viii fit Il
exactly.
The final polish is secured by series of acid
baths a process greatly superior to the old
hand method Of polishing A workman with
rubber gloves dips the piece into bath Of hot
acid. and an assistant washes it, When the
process has been repeated three times all of the
small particles Of glass have disappeared, and
the many edges are sharp and true.
In another part OF the ShOp enSraVerS are at
work on elaborate pieces. on a set Of twenty
five dozen pieces for +. T. Gerrys yacht
the work resembles the ancient intaglio and
cameo cutting of gems and crystals. The glass
engraver is not compelled to follow geometric
lines as is his fellow worker, the glass cutter.
Often he works out the design as he goes, with
out preliminary tracing, and ella bo-ates 1t an
artist does painting He uses copper disks OF
diameters from the size of a pinhead up to six
inches and as thin as a hair a quarter Of
an inch thick
There is hardly any limit to the amount Of
work that toe put on cut or engraved glass
ware and the cost is according to the work.
Single pieces have cost much as 5000, and
one Of the Vandcrbilts has champagne glasses
cut in Corning at a cost of $500 dozen.
Many persons are puzzled to distinguish good
cut glass from the inferior article one good
rule is that if it is cheap it must be inferior, for
it costs to make good cut glass. Here are some
directions which Corning manufacturers give
by which one can tell the real article
A piece IF fine cut glass transmits light color
less as a crystal. Inferior glass usually shows
a tint yelluWish -sreeniSh and its surfaces
| are apt to look smoky you hold the piece be-
tween your eye and the light. Then you VIII
notice that in fine glass the pattern is not only
better designed, but truer in execution that the
cuttings are sharp and polished with perfect
! evcnncss In the inferior glass YOU will hnd by
comparison all sorts of Irregularities Until you
have mastered these differences you will not be
| n cOuu0isseur Of fine cut glass and will not
understand why the collector is willing to pay
the necessary difference in price between good
glass artistiCally designed and cut, and inferior
glass made cheaply for competition.
UINTED A MAN S1pURD1Y