The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-01-09
WITH The GLASSBLOWERS.
PICTURESQUE LIGHT EFFECTS
IN THE FURNACE ROOM


Using the BIowpipe Interesting
Facts in Connection with the Indusf
try.
Glassblowing, more than almost any
other modern trade, brings to mind the
esprit du corps and craftsman's pride
which banded together the old-t time
guilds. From boyhood to old age a
slassbloWer may advance steadily to
inner work and better wages, and in
any factory where the output is Of the
inner grades of glass the master work
men are usually gray-haired men.
sturdy men they are, too, broad of
chest and strong of lung, in spite of the
popular superstition that the life of
glassbloWer lasts only seven years 1t
comes nearer to being seven times sew
en-, and in many cases a man spends
his entire term of service in one facto-
r
Glass factory sounds prosaic enough,
and, from the outside it looks prosaic.
Once penetrate, though, to the regions
behind the heavy brick walls, and one
finds ones self in picturesque inferno
brush of Rembrandt In great, dim
dungeon, whose boundaries are lost in
darkness, massive towers of brick and
fire-clay, pierced with points of white
hot light, rise from the stone floor and
vanish among the shadows of the roof.
Here and there among them are struc-
lures like gigantic beehives, bathed in
shafts of orange radiance. In and out,
back and forth, through velvet-black
gloom and intolerable glare, fit de-
mons great and small, carrying long
black rods and forks and shoyels, some
tipped with balls of living flame, some
holding strange and brilliant vessels
which CLINT like Jewels in the furnace
flare.
That furnace flare! Writers in the
Scriptures knew the glory of white
heat and exhausted the gorgeous pos
sibilities of the Hebrew tongue in its
description. And surely there is no
white glow so pure as that of molten
glass. Through the great eyes of the
furnace glimmers lake of liquid fire.
White fire, in the sense that white is
the sum of all the colors knows to man,
for over and under. and through it,
like the flame in the heart Of an opal,
plays an evanescent rainbow CLEAN.
1t is the ghost of iridescence, the spirit
of color purified in the fervent heat.
BLOWING THE GLASS.
Suddenly a long black rod is thrust
into the flaming pool, The stalwart
young fellow who carries it holds and
twirls it for moment, and then with
draws 1t. At the end is a small glow
ing sphere that might be bit of the
elemental world stuff. White at first,
it changes swiftly to gold, and then to
orange as it is rolled to a cone on
smooth slab Of hot iron and handed to
a gray-haired man, who sits on low
wooden chair with long, straight iron
arms. A preliminary puff at one end
of the rod shows it to be an iron blow
pipe instead of a rod, and rounds out
the cone into a globe. Then a sturdy
urchin squats on his heels beside the
chair, and his red cheeks puff out like
those of a trumpet-bowing cherub as
he breathes into the following sphere.
Another moment, while the blowpipe is
rolled rapidly up and down the iron
track made by the arms of the chair,
and then the lips of the master work
men are at the end of the pipe, and
the sphere grows into long oval 1t
is green as an emerald now, with melt
ing hues of gold rose and violet breath
ing over it's surface. 1t is cooling rap
idly, but a plunge into the flame of the
lesser furnace silvers it once more with
great heat. Then the end of the oval
is pressed firmly against wooden
block, which rounds it again into
globe that grows steadily larger as it
fills with air from the mighty lungs OF
the blower. A helper stands ready
with a lump of red-hot glass on the end
of a slender rod of iron. This is pressed
against the globe just opposite the
blowpipe, where it adheres. A touch of
cold iron, and the bloWpipe is severed
from the globe as clearly as though
sheared off with a razor.
Then another bath in the fire, and
the globe is ready for the finishing
touches. The master workman once
more takes his seat, and the rod is
rolled swiftly up and down the long
iron chair arms, while the workers hol-
low out the opening with shears and
smooth the globe into perfect shape
with a wooden paddle Sparks trail
thickly over the surface which is be-
ginning to take a red glow under the
silyer-green. Once more, and for the
last time, it is thrust into the furnace,
and rapidly twirled. Now the color
changes. From green it melts into sill
yer, then gold, then orange. Gradually
the red tinge deepens and spreads, un-
iii the beautiful thing burns like
great ruby against the background of
flame. Out again, and a slender imp
ish-looking fork hooks into the open
ing. The rod is taken off with another
touch of cold iron, and an active small
how is racing over to the annealing
ovens with a sumptuous ruby globe for
q hanuuet lamp. Time, not more than
two minutes from the taking out of the
original lump Of glass from the fur
mace.
HOW GLASSBLOWERS ARE
TRAINED.
All glassbloWers begin as attending
boys. In the old days boy could be
admitted to the factory at the age of
ten, but now the earliest legal age for
apprenticeship is fourteen. Even then
q boy must have certificate Of good
health and sound condition, for glass
blowing is an arduous trade. The be-
lief concerning the seven-year limit to
q glassblower's life of active service
probably arises from the fact that