Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/618

600 and curious forms, a considerable fame before the days of the Roman supremacy; but the magnificent sheet of glass through which we of a morning study the signs of the weather, or glance at the too tempting displays in the shop-windows, is a luxury which we must admit to be peculiar to our own times. It might gain for us the title of the "age of glass," had not the age already been devoted successively to the genius of iron, of steel, and of electricity.

There is also observable a marked difference in the spirit in which the earlier and the later artisans worked. While glass was still a product of some rarity, its manufacture naturally occupied a place among the fine arts rather than among the more common industries. The early glass-makers, in consequence, busied themselves more with the production of the costly and the beautiful than in any attempt to bring glass in its manifold applications within the reach of the poor. Later workers, on the other hand, have shown the influence of democratic institutions. They have found their greatest pleasure, as well as their greatest profit, in the production of wares of such utility and cheapness that their market includes even the very poorest. As a result of this enlarged production, the history of glass shows a marked increase in quality and a marked decrease in price. The interest aroused by this progress is not only technical and commercial, but, in the case of window-glass, in a still wider sense social and economic. In filling the windows of our houses with transparency, the glassmaker has been a public benefactor. His benefaction is the greater, since the material he supplies is now at the disposal of even those of limited means. We hardly appreciate the full significance of cheap window-glass. It lengthens the day to the dimensions assigned by Nature, and permits one to enjoy the sunshine of out-door life without exposure to the inclemencies of the weather. These are substantial contributions to the public health and well-being. At no previous time, we believe, could the dwellers in northern climes introduce into their homes so many square feet of sunlight for so little money.

It is the purpose of the present article to offer a brief glimpse of some of the processes involved in the metamorphosis of the crude materials into a serviceable pane of glass. As the operations are actually carried out in the arts, the attention of the onlooker is constantly distracted by the flame and glare of the furnaces, the passing and repassing of red-hot glass, the clouds of steam, and puffs of dust and smoke. He comes away from the factory with an impression limited to the more spectacular features of the process. Of necessity he is quite oblivious of a hundred details of which it is very necessary that the glass-maker should be distinctly sensible. In making this visit by deputy, it