The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-08
. MAKING WINDOW GLASS.
The Various Steps in an Interesting
 Process Described.

lHe NdllpuS steps III III Interesting
 Process Described.
 People who have glass windows in | their homes do not know that the glass
 contains enough arsenic to make it a
 deadly poison. Glassmakers say that
 the windows of an ordinary home con-
 tain enough of this poison to kill reg iment of men, The popular supposltion | that glass Is made of sand Is correct
 one, but quantity of other articles en-
 ters into it's composition. Window glass | factories are divided into two depart ments--a tankhouse and a pothouse. l The process of glass-makking in one of | these departments is practically the l same as in the other In the tankhouse | the glass is all melted in immense tanks, which will hold thousands of tons. In the pothouse the glass Is made In pots. After the fires are lighted and
 tank Is heated, the glass mixture is
 shovelled in. It includes glass left over
 from the former season, glass refuse,
 sand and salt cake. Arsenic Is not used
 in the tankkhouse, for the reason that
 the heat is so intense that the drug is
 volatilized and escapes into the air
 NiiipAt ilhSiiiiS tiV 'AiiHho nso piiN
 mixture melts and flows to one end of a
 tank, fresh supplies are shovelled in at
 the other end.
 The molten ma SIS seethes and works" in q manner similar to that of a mash in distillery. From the salt cakes comes a salt water that has to be sepa- rated from the mass, and the easiest way to remove it is to burn it out. This Is done by throwing stove wood into the tank on top of the molten glass. The water Is converted into steam, which is destroyed by the intense heat from the glass, The melted glass is then skinned by an automatic skinner and it Is ready for the gatherer. A gather CT thrusts a long steel blowpipe into one of the rings at the lower end of the tank, He twists and turns it until a small ball of glass gathers on the end. This ball is partially cooled, polished by being turned in box of sawdust and then passed on to the blower who heats it again until it Becomes like taffy. The blower swings the ball over a pit that is twelve feet deep and rapidly blows it into an elongated pear-shape. When a blower is through the melted glass be- comes perfect cylinder about five feet long and two feet across. It then pass es to a snapper" who takeks 1t to a rack and breaks the roller loose from l the bloWpipe.
 The snapper gathers a small lump of | melted glass on the end of a rod and | dext erously runs narrow ribbon of the | stuff around the ends of the roller, both l at the blowpipe end and the closed end. | The little ribbons of melted glass cool | in few seconds, when they are re- | moved. leaving narrow zone of almost | red hot glass around the rollers at each | end. Then taking tool that resembles a soldering iron, the snapper rubs it for a moment on his forehead, and when the point of it is moistened with perspi- ration, he runs the iron around the roll ars at the heated spot. The glass racks and separates as cleanly as if 9ut with a diamond, the blow-pipe is re- moved and the closed cylinder has be- 'ome a roller-a sheet of glass rolled up he same as a sheet of music, only in a continuous roll, without edges. The 'oller is then ready to go to the fiatten IT,
 The fattener works in another part of he building, where are located the nat ening ovens. These ovens are heated o temperature sufficient to soften the ,lass so that it may be rolled out into heets A series of fire-clay tables, ,laced in a circle, like the spokes of wheel, revolve in the ovens and on hese tables the rollers are fiattened. hey are placed inside, allowed to be- ome hot and then a cold iron is run long the inside from end to end The ontact of the iron cuts the glass, which 5 then strengthened out upon the table. he fiattener has number of billets of reen wood attached to long handles, nd with these billets which are shaped T such manner as to do the work eX- ected of them. he irons the softened heet of glass until it is perfectly flat ,