15+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



GLASS-MAKING. 



By C. HANFOBD HENDEESON, 



PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY IN THE PHILADELPHIA MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL. 



III. THE EVOLUTION OF A GLASS BOTTLE. 



TO a little sand, a little alkali, and a little limestone, add con- 

 siderable heat and a still greater amount of skill, might be 

 taken as a brief recipe for the manufacture of a glass bottle. 



But to know in just what proportions to mix these several in- 

 gredients, how to produce and manage the requisite heat, and par- 

 ticularly how to cultivate that most essential part of the whole 

 process, the manual dexterity which gives value to these other 

 factors, are matters less briefly disposed of. Their consideration 

 has made the evolution of a glass bottle a history covering several 

 thousand years. The importance of this modest process will ap- 

 pear, if one is not already persuaded of it, when one recalls for an 

 instant the multitudinous uses to which bottles are now put. It 

 is difficult to fancy the confusion which would result were so 

 simple an article of commerce suddenly withdrawn from the world 

 of fact, and society called upon to manage without its service. 

 Great would be the consternation of a host of manufacturers, and 

 loud the outcry of a larger host of consumers. 



The earlier man, it is to be remembered, had his herds always 

 with him, his spring of water near his tent-door. He knew no 

 tonic save the air of the desert, and few other beverages than the 

 wine which was stored in sacks of goat's skin. To him bottles 

 and their contents were matters of little moment. It is true that, 

 in the storage of the one liquid which he preserved in this way, 

 he did have to be careful not to put new wine into old bottles, but 

 the proverb was easily recalled, and its precaution not difficult to 

 carry out. He contented himself with his sack of skin, and found, 

 in the projection which had once been the leg or neck of the animal, 

 a mouth to his bottle sufficiently convenient to serve his purpose. 



It was from receptacles such as this that the tired heroes of the 

 Iliad regaled themselves, and the aged Noah partook too gener- 

 ously. 



Even now this primitive bottle is largely used for the trans- 

 portation and storage of water by the people of western Asia, 

 and the usage seems to possess enough inertia to carry it forward 

 several centuries further. Invading Americans may find the bottle 

 of skin still in vogue, when their restless westward-moving activ- 

 ity carries them across the Pacific. 



The substitution of glass bottles was effected but slowly even 

 among the more progressive of ancient peoples. In the use of 



