Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/15

 GLASS for vessels for holding and keeping liquids. It resists the action of nearly all the powerful chemical reagents ; and but for this substance many of them would never have been known, nor could they now be made and kept. Noth- ing definite is known concerning the discovery of the art of glass making or the early history of its manufacture. The statement made by Pliny that some Phoenician mariners having landed on the banks of a small river in Pales- tine, " and finding no stones to rest their pots on, they placed under them some masses of nitrum [soda, as is supposed], which, being fused by the heat with the sand of the river, produced a liquid and transparent "stream," is not generally accepted as showing the origin of glass. A stronger heat than could be ob- tained from an open fire would be required to effect this result. Nor is much more credit to be attached to his accounts respecting the pro- duction of a glass of malleable character, which when thrown upon the ground was merely in- dented, and could be restored to shape with a hammer, as if it were brass. Some metallic salts, as chloride of silver, possess ductility at the same time with a glossy appearance, and of one of them the articles referred to may perhaps have been made ; but all modern ex- perience is opposed to the possibility of a vit- rified body being malleable. It has been es- tablished with certainty that the art was prac- tised among the Egyptians at a very early period. Paintings on a tomb at Beni Hassan, supposed to date from the reign of Osortasen I., about 3,000 B. C., represent Theban glass blowers at work with blowpipes very similar to those used at the present day. A necklace bead of material similar to the modern crown glass was found at Thebes, bearing the name of the queen of Thothmes III., who reigned about 1500 B. C., inscribed in hieroglyphics. In the British museum there is an interesting ancient Egyptian specimen in the form of a small bottle of opaque light-blue glass, on which FIG. 1. Theban Glass Blowers. are painted in yellow the names and titles of the same monarch. Ornaments imitating pre- cious gems in color and beauty show that the art had been brought to a high degree of perfection by the Egyptians. Not only was glass used by them in making drinking vessels, but also for mosaic work, the figures of deities and sacred emblems, and even for coffins, in all of which they attained excellent workman- ship and surprising brilliancy of color. The glass works of Alexandria, in operation in the time of Strabo and Pliny, were famous among FIG. 2. Blue Glass Bot- tle with Name of Thothmes III. FIG. 3. Green Glass Vase with Name of Sargon. the ancients. According to Theophrastus, the processes of cutting or grinding, of gilding and coloring, were in use 370 years B. 0. Arti- cles of exquisite workmanship were produced, but of great cost, and known only as luxuries. Vases and cups, some enamelled and beautiful- ly cut and wrought with raised figures, and some remarkable for the brilliancy of their colors, were furnished to the Komans. From the Egyptians the Phoenicians are supposed to have received the art, which flourished at a very early period at Sidon and Tyre. In the ruins of Nineveh glass lenses, vases, bottles, &c., have been found ; but there is no indica- tion of the use of glass for windows. A small vase of transparent green glass, on which are engraved in outline a lion and the name and titles of the Assyrian monarch Sargon, 719 B. C., is preserved in the British museum, and is regarded as the earliest dated specimen of transparent glass. It was found in the palace of Nimrud in Nineveh. That the manufac- ture of glass was extensively practised by the ancient Greeks, and that they had acquired great skill in the art, are shown by the re- markable collection of specimens taken by Cesnola from the tombs at Dali on the isl- and of Cyprus in 1866-'70, and deposited in the metropolitan museum of art, New York, in 1872. This collection of Greek glass, the most extensive known, comprises 1,700 articles, not only plain and simple, but various in form and color, and iridescent and incrusted. There are plates plain, fluted, and with handles, in the va- rious colors and in different shades of the same color. There is a great variety of ornamen- tal cups and vases, and bottles of all sizes and shapes known to any people. (See CESNOLA.) The manufacture of glass was introduced into Rome in the time of Cicero. During the reign of Nero great improvements were made and