GLASS-MAKING. 



161 



for table or other domestic usage, taking form in the hands of the 

 adroit workers. It is the scene of an intense and a highly ingen- 

 ious activity. The bottles and dishes and globes intended for sub- 

 sequent treatment in the atelier are all blown, the manipulations 

 being varied in accordance with the special form it is desired to 

 produce. As a rule, it may be said that it is cheaper to produce 

 the pressed glass than the blown, since less time is required in 

 fashioning the articles; 

 but for the finer work 

 the blown is always 

 preferred, as glass 

 worked exclusively in 

 the air has a much 

 more brilliant surface 

 than that which has 

 been formed in con- 

 tact with the faces of 

 the iron mold. The 

 plain articles thus 

 shaped are known in 

 the trade as " blanks." 

 The largest manufact- 

 urers of cut and en- 

 graved glass also make 

 their own blanks, but 

 there are a number of 

 establishments which 

 confine themselves ex- 

 clusively to the proc- 

 esses of ornamentation. 

 The articles intended 

 for such decoration go 

 from the blower to the 

 annealing leer, where they are permitted to pass through a cham- 

 ber of brick- work some sixty to eighty feet long, subjected to a 

 gradually decreasing temperature for a period of twenty-four 

 hours or less, according to the circumstances of the work. The 

 articles to be annealed are placed in wrought-iron cars, and are 

 slowly moved through the leer, coming out perfectly cold. 



It is in this way that the blanks are prepared for the atelier 

 proper. Here one finds a number of very interesting operations 

 going on side by side. The untechnical visitor will perhaps be 

 most attracted by the cutting process, since the results are so 

 brilliant, and the articles possess so staple a value. He will get a 

 good insight into the general principles by following the process 

 of cutting a carafe. 



Fig. 3.— The Operation of making Ground Glass Globes. 



