Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/614

 594 production of pressed glassware. The works started in a modest way with one eight-pot furnace, and increased their capacity as circumstances warranted. About two years after the works were built a local carpenter applied to the proprietor for a bit of glassware needed in some building operation, and was told that it could not be supplied. He suggested that the material might be pressed



into the shape he wanted. With the co-operation of the proprietor a rough press was made, and after some experimenting was found to answer the purpose admirably. A glass tumbler, stated to have been the first one made, was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, but was unfortunately broken. From this incidental suggestion, given, too, by an outsider, the present extensive industry takes its rise. The American press is now used in nearly all the glass-producing countries of Europe, and has