Omaha daily bee., 1908-02-23


to which H removes broken glass that may
stin be in ut condition for use.
Perhaps one corner has been broken from
big light. practically new; such a pane
can be cut down to fit some smaller win
dow.
In these days most plate glass every
where Is insured. but not all Of II is. II an
uninsured plate Is broken the owner goes
to dealer. new or salvage, and gets "a
fresh plate put In, selling the broken glass
to the salvage dealer; and 50 from the in
surance companies and the house wreckcrs
and from uninsured glass the salvage
dealers accumulate great stocks Of second
hand plate glass which Is disposed OF in
various ways
Some Of it may be in such condition that
It can be reset anywhere; some Of It may
be sold to go into windows In streets less
conspicuous. A big plate may come in with
a deep scratch in the middle. From such a
plate they cut ont a strip containing the
scratch, leaving, perhaps, two clear smaller
plates available for smaller windows.
Architects may specify that new glass
shall be used in construction, but more or
less salvage glass is used in repair work
and in replacing sheet glass In down
town city building that was built with
windows OF sheet glass the windows nave
been reglazed with salvage plate, as have
been also the glass windows in the par
titions Of the offices on the ground floor.
You might find a scratch here and there
on this glass II you looked for scratches,
but the salvage plate is a big improvement
on the old sheet.
Glaciers buy the salvage plate to replace
broken glass in smaller windows or to re-
place sheet glass. There is an interesting
detail connected with the use Of plate glass
in place OF sheet glass in windows that are
made to be raised.
Plate glass weighs about three times as
much as sheet glass. and. Of course. 20
make the windows work properly the sash
weights must be correspondingly increased
in weight Now, in the sash weight pockets
Of the window framing as originally con-
structed for windows with sheet glass there
wouldn't be room for iron weights Of the
additional length required by the added
weight needed for plate; for with the added
weight required the sash weights would
be so long that you couldn't raise the
window to its full height or pull It down
correspondingly. So. when they replace
sheet glass with plate in a window that
opens, they replace also the iron sash
lead. which is three times heavier.
Salvage plate that is too much scratched
to be used again for window glass may be
made into ground or frosted glass for use
in office partitions or doors.
Some OF the salvage plate glass too small
for use in window purposes is used for the
glass doors of refrigerators; larger pieces
may be used for glass table tops. A good
many small fragments are cut for use as
small hand mirrors. though only clear
pieces of glass can be used for this purpose
Quantities Of salvage plate of pieces too
small for any sort of windows are used
for making glass signs. A dealer in salvage
glass would not consider as remarkable an
order for 10000 strips of plate glass cut to
specified dimensions to be made into glass
signs.
So the salvage glass has many uses. but
after the last merchantable piece has been
cut from it there stnl remains the scraps
and fragments that accumulate in the cut
ting. Even the scraps and fragments can
be sold; they don't bring much but they do
bring something, and these are melted up
and used in the manufacture OF bottles.