Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/69

Rh (41.) An operation in which rapidity is of essential importance is in bringing the produce of mines up to the surface. The shafts through which the produce is raised are sunk at a very great expense, and it is, of course, desirable to sink as few of them as possible. The matter to be extracted is therefore raised by steam-engines with considerable velocity; and without this many of our mines could not be worked with profit.

(42.) The effect of great velocity in modifying the form of a cohesive substance is beautifully shown in the process for making window-glass, termed "flashing," which is one of the most striking operations in our domestic arts. A workman having dipped his iron tube into the glass pot, and loaded it with several pounds of the melted "metal," blows out a large globe, which is connected with his rod by a short thick hollow neck. Another workman now fixes to the globe immediately opposite to its neck, an iron rod, the extremity of which has been dipped in the melted glass; and when this is firmly attached, a few drops of water separate the neck of the globe from the iron tube. The rod with the globe attached to it is now held at the mouth of a glowing furnace: and by turning the rod the globe is made to revolve slowly, so as to be uniformly exposed to the heat: the first effect of this softening is to make the glass contract upon itself and to enlarge the opening of the neck. As the softening proceeds, the globe is turned more quickly on its axis, and when very soft and almost incandescent, it is removed from the fire, and the velocity of rotation being still continually increased, the opening enlarges from the effect of the