Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/613

 Rh made in glass-making for a long period of time. The tank furnace is rapidly superseding the old-fashioned pot furnaces, and in a very few years I do not think a pot furnace will be in operation in the entire country. The manufacture of bottles by machinery is comparatively new here, and, although it has been attempted a number of times, it has never been a pronounced success until recently. It is still in its infancy, but next year I think will see a large portion of the commoner kinds of bottles made in this way. I have no doubt that ultimately all articles of blown glassware will be made by machinery."

Although the attempt to establish glass-making in New England never met with great or permanent success, it is to Yankee inventive skill that we owe much of the means of success elsewhere. In these attempts Massachusetts took the lead in the nineteenth century, as she had in earlier days. In addition to the Boston works, established in 1792, a successful window-glass factory was started at Middlesex village in 1802. This gave employment to one hundred persons in all and turned out annually about eight acres of glass. It continued in operation a full quarter of a century, when it was shut down on account of the failure of the proprietors. The works were burned, but were soon after rebuilt, and in 1829 a company undertook to manage an industry which had failed in individual hands. They continued to make glass there for about ten years, when they removed to New Hampshire, attracted probably by greater abundance of fuel. Works were also established at Cheshire in 1812, and others in 1853 at Lenox. The latter was devoted to the production of window glass, and proved the most successful and enduring of the number. Several flint-glass houses were started in and around Boston, and were very successful during the early part of the century. The works at East Cambridge, built about 1812, have been particularly productive. Six years after they were started they are reported to have been "one of the most extensive flint-glass manufactories in the country." They had at that time two furnaces and twenty-four cutting wheels. The plant also included a furnace capable of turning out two tons of red lead a week, and was in other ways well equipped for the production of the finer wares. In 1823 22,400 pounds of glassware represented the weekly product. In 1865 the number of furnaces had been increased to five, the number of people employed being five hundred, and the value of the yearly product not far from $500,000. This, however, represented high-water mark, and was soon followed by a considerable decrease in activity. More significant was the flint-glass house established at Sandwich in 1825, for it has the reputation of having made the most important of American contributions to the technique of glass-working, and that is the glass-press used in the