The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-07-09

put into the melting pots. The mss
of molten metal got from this Opaque,
earthy-looking batch" has frequently
TO be skinned Of impurities; but it is,
nevertheless, problem whence comes
that wonderful and enduring transpar-
ency which everybody likes to see in
glass.
Until the hour strikes for the work
men to commence operations you may
find them experimenting for amuse-
ment or profit with the blow-pipe.
Specimens are blown out to the thin
ness of tissue paper bag, which an
other puff of wind explodes with a
crack. The floor all around the fur
mace chamber is covered with brittle
shining splinters and particles of glass,
which crackle underfoot at every step.
One Of the men may bring you mass
of metal on a blowpipe and ask you
to expend a few cheekfuls of wind
upon it. The pipe takes no more blow
ing than trombone, though it lacks
mouthpiece, and you may expand
the bubble until it is black and cold,
so fragile that it will break into a
myriad pieces if you touch 1t. The
molten glass is so ductlle that 1t may
be spun out into thread.
At the signal to commence work the
men, already partly stripped to the
waist, poke their four-foot blowpipes
through the hole of the crucible oppo-
site to which they work, twisting 1t
round until it has taken up sufficient
Of the ropy and viscid glass for one
bottle. The man who is clever at his
work will, of course, gather up neither
too much nor too little for the thick
ness Of bottle required; he can tell
without looking through the furnace
holes when he has enough by the
weight added to his pipe. Thus all
around the fiery furnace there are fig
ures moving continually across the lu-
rid light, most Of them dexterously
welding their blowpipes, and balanc-
ing at the end of each one the exact
quantity of vitrified matter to make a
bottle. The amateur would find it diff
ficult to balance the molten mass; the
chances are that it would drop on the
floor, never to be picked up again.
At the same moment you will see
bottles in all stages Of growth, some
glittering gold, others cooling down to
orange or red; some in the forms Of
plummets or dazzling pears, others as
incandescent bosses threatening to be-
come fragile bladders 1t is all as
charming as pyrotechnic display.
You will see the black blowpipe twjrl-
ed round, blown down, held up like
gun barrel, then, in the form Of an in
candescent lamp globe turned round on
beeswaxed castiron implement, call
ed a marler, on whose edge the bottle
neck is formed. 1t Is held up once
more, blown into, then shut up in a
castiron mold placed at the operators
feet somewhat below the level of the
ground This mold is opened and
closed by wire spring, which the
operator presses with his feet, and di-
rectly the red hot bottle is inclosed
he blows from the pipe once more,
SO as to fill it completely.
A man goes round from mold to
mold, inserting a rod into the neck of
each bottle, and collecting a trayful
to go to the annealing chamber. Here
the bottles are stacked up for a grad
ual cooling process which may possibly
last SO hours. This gives them the
desired strength. The annealing proc
ess is cure for their natural fragili-
ty, and enables them to stand the test
Of boiling water.