Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-01
MAKING CHEMICAL GLASS
Lessons for America of German
System of Manufacture.
United states Has Much to Learn he .
fore II Can Produce Consid-
cradle Percentage of Its
Own Consumption.

/
chemical glassware had been undertaken
III the United States since the begin
nlng or the European war and that some
OF the TASKS and beakers now being
made In this country were superior to
the best European product
These facts were brought out by Ar
thur II. Thomas company Of Philadel-
phia in an address before the American
Chemical society in its spring meeting in
Urbana- Ill. 1t was also brought out
that In the matter of the lamp-blown
and volumetric ware little or no prog
ress was being made by the United
states and that much must be learned
in the manufacture of these goods if
the United States Is to produce any
considerable percentage of its own con-
sumption
In the complete report of Mr.. Thomas
| address, as published by the Journal of
Industrial and Chemical Engineering,
the methods whereby Germany has ac-
CURED pre-eminence in the field of in
dustry are set forth in these words:
Not few of you have visited that
attractive little section Of Thuringia
which has, since the beginnings of mod
ern chemistry and before, supplied the
world with chemical glassware and with
many other interesting things as we'll
Omenau, Stuetzerbach. Schmiedefeld,
Gehlberg and Frauenwald are names
familiar to you from catalogues If not
from visits. Each of these towns and
many others have their one or two 'huet-
ten" mostly with 'blaeserei,' 'aetzerei
and 'scrleferei' operated by the same
al.
lamp-blowning and graduating shops
both in the towns and nestled alone
among the fir-clad hills.
Here We still find the formerly wide
spread house working industry-now de-
creasing because of the modern organ
lied shop-where certain members of the
family, too old OF unable for other rea-
sons to make full time at the shop do
great variety of work at home on a
Diece-work basis
SYSTEM OF CLOSE COOPERATION.
They also have there the local testing
bureaus Of the Kaiserlichen Normal
ltichungs- * commission, such as the Her.
zoglich Saechische Eichamt in Gehlberg,
from which must radiate a vast influ-
ence toward the development of precise
STANDARDS or workmanship.
There is also their we'll organized ap-
prentice system and that most important
institution. the Each schulz I am not
clear enough in the details Of either of
these to explain them with any author
ty, but am quite sure that we have in
this country no trade or manual train
Ing school where a young man can learn
the fundamentals Of chemical or any
other glass blowing together with
such science instruction as Is required
in such work
Back Of all this, and possibly more
fundamental than any of it, there is
throughout Germany and elsewhere in
Europe a well-established association
between the chemist in his laboratory
and the glass-blowng industry, particu-
larly as regards new apparatus This
association usually begins with the lab
oratory glass blower and has its first
commercial extension through the med
ium OF the small outside glass blowing
shop which is so generally found ada
cent to almost every European institu-
ton maintaining laboratory, where
any original work Is done. Such shops
are often quite Independent of the lab
oratory, but are usually direct outcome
of the work therein. and the world has
been largely dependent upon them for
the pioneer apparatus in many fields
This laboratory glass blower and this
adjacent outside shop seem to form the
connecting link in Europe between the
chemist in his laboratory and the more
highly organized Thuringian manufac-
turer who distributes throughout the
articles, The development of the Beck
mann thermometer and other apparatus
for the determination of molecular
weight by the glass blower at the lab
oratory of Applied Chemistry, in Leip-
zig. under Beckmann's own direction;
the manufacture and sale in another
Leipzig shop of a great variety of APP
paratus for physical chemistry after
OSWALD and Luther: the DEVELOPMENT
and early manufacture in the basement
of the technical high school, in Dres-
den, OF the whole line of gas ANALYSIS
apparatus after Hempel, under his own
with its further DEVELOPMENT
by Dennis, OF Cornell University, are
a few OF the many illustrations of this
SUGGESTION FOR AMERICA.
I'm the United States we now have
some laboratory glass blowers, but
should he not be a part of every chem.
ical laboratory conducting original work
If We are to develop and manufacture
lamp-blown chemical apparatus to any |
extent? Should We not also encourage
the establishment and support of these |
small outside shops under the wing of |
our large universities and research insti- |
tutions where the new and special APP |
paratus which has been developed in |
their laboratories may be made. still |
more or less under the watchful eye of |
the author. and sold to those Interested |
until the demand warrants its manufac- |
ture in large quantities at the lower
prices possible in an organized shop?
Let us now consider for n moment |
In conclusion that bugaboo of the whole |
tariff! Is n higher tariff |
necessary to the perma-
nent establishment Of the manufacture
OF chemical apparatus in the United
States? 1t certainly IS not so far as
much OF the apparatus we have consid-
cred Is concerned. Even in our par
lcular classification of lamp blown
ma volumeric ware 1t seems not so
as a possible curtailment OF
iuty-free importation. | am not I'M
mindful that to those of you engaged
n teaching such a suggestion may seem
o jeopardize the very existence OF edu-