Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/179

Rh according to the taste and requirements of the purchaser. He may order anything, from the tiny vial of one-drachm capacity up to the ungainly carboy holding fourteen gallons. He may have any tints desired, from the colorless flint glass through all shades of green and brown and blue to the bottle of absolute blackness. Or



he may have any shape or form he pleases. Few if any bottles are kept in stock or made until ordered. Nearly all of the work is the direct filling of orders.

It is only by comparison with the older order of things that one can appreciate the large improvements that have recently been introduced into the process of bottle-making. In the Glassboro works the Ferrari furnace has effected many changes and many economies. I am told, on very reliable authority, that not only is the quality of the glass much improved by the employment of these furnaces, but that in addition the experience of five years has shown their maintenance and operation to be notably less expensive than the old-style pot furnaces. In the matter of fuel the saving is said to have been more than fifty per cent. The repairs have also cost as much less in proportion. When the melting was done in pots, the cost of these alone made an appreciable item in the year's expenses. Each one cost about fifty dollars, and their average life was only two months. Occasionally one was known to last nine months, but for every such exception there were from two to three dozen which failed in less than a month. The four furnaces in operation would require in all about forty pots, and these renewed every two months would mean during the