Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/131

 *tures on the walls of the tombs, represent, for the most part, scenes in the lives of the deceased persons, whose wealth in cattle, fish-boats, servants, &c., is ostentatiously displayed before the eye of the spectator. All this gives an insight into the details of private life among the ancient Egyptians. By the help of these inscriptions I think I could, without difficulty, make a "Court Calendar" of the reign of King Cheops We do not find in these researches, that the ancients were acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving glass, or of giving it any required shade of color. This invention, therefore, must be considered as belonging to the nineteenth century, and the honor of the discovery is due to M. Dubus Bonnel, an ingenious Frenchman, a native of Lille, and for which he obtained patents in Great Britain, and various countries of the European continent in 1837.

"When we figure to ourselves an apartment decorated with cloth of glass, and resplendent with lights, we must be convinced that it will equal in brilliancy all that the imagination can conceive; and realise, in a word, the wonders of the enchanted palaces mentioned in the Arabian tales. The lights flashing from the polished surface of the glass, to which any color or shade may be given, will make the room have the appearance of an apartment composed of pearls, mother-of-pearl, diamonds, garnets, sapphires, topazes, rubies, emeralds, or amethysts, &c., or, in short, of all those precious stones united and combined in a thousand ways, and formed into stars, rosettes, boquets, garlands, festoons, and graceful undulations, varied almost ad infinitum."—L'Echo du Monde Savant, &c. No. 58, Feb. 15, 1837.—Translated from the French.

The warp is composed of silk, forming the body and groundwork on which the pattern in glass appears, as effected by the weft. The requisite flexibility of glass thread for manufacturing purposes is to be ascribed to its extreme fineness; as not less than from fifty to sixty of the original threads (spun by steam engine power) are required to form one thread of the weft. The process is slow; for no more than a yard of cloth can be produced in twelve hours. The work, however, is extremely beautiful and comparatively cheap, inasmuch as no similar stuff, where bullion is really introduced, can be purchased for anything like the price for which this is sold; added to this, it is, as far as the glass is concerned, imperishable. Glass is more durable than either gold or silver, and, besides, possesses the advantage of never tarnishing. . In some instances I have traced the graves of father, son, grandson, and even great-grandson—all that now remains of the distinguished families, which five thousand years ago, formed the nobility of the land."