The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-07-16
MAKING STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
There Are Thousands Of coIored Bits
Used in Single Window.

USED In a Single Window.
Down in the cellar of an old two,story
brick building on Wyandotte street, Just
south Of Fifth, tons and tons of stained
glass stand in racks placed so close to-
gether that there Is hardly room for
man to walk between them. Out 81 those
racks comes the material from which
many Of the stained glass windows used
n this section Of the country arc made,
Between the glass as 1t stands III the
rack and the finished windows il an in-
teresting process. II Is a work that re.
quires not only high degree Of skill
but infinite care and d fine eye for tints.
Machinery plays only d small part III
the fabrication Of a stained glass win
dow. It is the hand and the eye that do
the work.
Practically all Of the glass used for
stained windows Is now made in America
Formerly it was all imported, but now
only that style known to the trade as
"antique" comes from abroad The
glass in the common grades comes 10 hinge
sheets six and eight feet in length,
and from two to six feet wide. Besides
the antique" and the plain plate glass
there are four grades known "A "cRthe.
dral,s "ondoyant," "opalescents and
"draperyn Each Of these grades come
IN all shades of the rainbow, The drapery
glass IL glass II fiutcd and II used To rep
resent clothing in windows containing
figures.
IN making a figure the first thing, Of
course, Is the design This may be a
stock drawing or a special design to or
der. From this a full sized pattern Is
drawn. When this il complete it goes
to the cutter, who cuts ont duplicates Of
each piece Of the design for which a piece
of glass is to be used The cutter uses
shears so made that In cutting the du.
plieate exactly enough space is left to
allow for the lead which goes between
each piece Of glass to hold the window
together. Some idea of the work inyolv-
ed is shown ia window now being made
for private residence. The window
contains peacock. and In the tail alone
$50 pieces Of glass are used, In the
whole design there are more than 1900
pieces Of glass.
From the cutter theduplicate design,
in pieces, goes to the glazicr, who cuts
out each separate piece Of glass. Dia-
monds are used exclusively IN the cut
| ting. The glazier must match the glass
for each piece. Often where Just the
exact tint cannot be obtained In single
piece Of glass, two pieces are oyerlaid
to get the effect. He may only have TO
cut one piece for each duplication a
special designer he may have to cut a
dozen alike for an order for church win
dows. After all the glass is cut the de-
sign is laid out on a wide board and
goes to the workman. He ASSEMBLIES the
window and binds it together The
binding is done with what is known as
cam lead, fiat thread Of metal contain
ing on aech side channel into which
the edge of the glass fits. The lead Ia cut
into lengths to fit each particular piece
| OF glass. After the whole design Is thus
assembled each joint Is soldered togeth-
er
| From the assembler the window, bound
IN an iron frame, goes to another work
man. who fills in beteen the glass and
the lead with cement that makes the
window air and water tight. Then after
| il IL framed in the sash it is cleaned of
with pumice stone and is ready 10 be
placed. In the ordinary window figures
such as that Of the face and robe are
first TAINTED on plain glass, which Is then
baked in q glass furnace. In the costlier
windows the entire figures are made
of stained glass, work that requires the
most perfect manipulation and O high
order Of artistic ability InbeveIed plate
work the glass is first cut to size and
then bevelled and repolished. CHANNEL
ed zinc strips are used 70 bind the pieces
together If copper Is desired the whole
design, complete, Is placed in copper
plating bath.
There Il wide range of cost Of
stained glass or beyelled plate glass win
dows. Some of the work may be had
for as little as dollar square foo
and from that price runs up to $40 or
$12 square foot. For mosaic figure
work the prices is higher yet. The cost
Of the ordinary window depends upon
either the number Of pieces of glass in
/ il or the number Of figures. From the
Kansas City Star.