Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/173

Rh impurities which float as a scum on the surface of the bath. To avoid these evils, each gathering hole has its "boot" a rounded hood of fire-clay which surrounds the hole on the inside of the chamber, and extends downward to the bottom of the bath in the shape of an oval cylinder. An opening near the bottom of the cylinder admits the fluid glass into the interior of the boot, and



permits it to stand always at the same level there as in the gathering chamber outside. Thus the gatherer draws his burden from this little bucket-like reservoir, but, like the widow's cruse of oil, the supply never gives out.

Outside of the furnace the agencies of heat and chemism are replaced by that of human dexterity. The men work in companies, which are known in the glass-maker's parlance as "shops." And very busy companies they are. They resemble nothing so much as a swarm of bees, as they hurry to and fro about the gathering holes. The condition is one of almost nervous activity. The men toss their blowpipes hither and thither in the operation of forming the bottles, and boys dart in and out of the crowd carrying