i 5 8 



THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MOXTHLY. 



reducible and useful metal, it is naturally considerably more ex- 

 pensive than the earthy ingredients, but its cost is still far within 

 the limits of moderation. The Rocky Mountains and the Missis- 

 sippi Valley furnish lead ores in such abundance that the com- 

 pounds of the metal may fairly be classed among cheap products. 

 The total cost of the "batch" can not be more than a few cents 

 a pound. Compare this with the value of the finished products. 

 The finer cut glass will sell for perhaps as many dollars a pound, 

 while the finest cameo glass may bring almost as many hundred, 

 It must not be supposed, however, that the difference, or even the 



Fig. 1.— The Glass-Cctter at his Wheel. 



greater part of it, goes into the pocket of the manufacturer. A 

 fair proportion reaches that destination, but by far the larger 

 share goes for meat and bread and coal, houses and cloth, to sus- 

 tain the life of the army of men, women, and children by whose 

 labor these dull earths and oxides are transformed into the brill- 

 iant carafes and bowls which adorn our dinner-table-. 



Much the greater part of this increased value is conferred upon 

 the glass by the dexterous hand-work expended in the atelier, 

 rather than by the coarser operations which attend the furnace 

 proee— This, however, is the basis of all that follows, and the 

 beginnings of the finest cut-glass bowl or cameo vase are to be 

 sought in the mixing-room, where the crude materials are put 

 together. In different establishments the proportions vary, as 

 in the manufacture of all other forms of glass products, and 

 even in the same establishment uniformity is far from absolute. 



