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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tablished in 1775 at Glassboro. They are still in operation, and 

 are at the present day the most extensive of American bottle- 

 works, employing as they do some six hundred persons in the 

 conduct of their operations. It is a significant fact, showing the 

 force of modern progress, that after existing for more than a cent- 

 ury, the capacity of the " plant " was increased over fifty per cent 

 during a recent period of three years. It is one of several estab- 

 lishments which have grown up in that neighborhood, and which 

 have been attracted by the same cause, the abundance of a fair 

 quality of sand. There is, moreover, something highly gregarious 

 about modern industries. It frequently happens that many other 

 localities offer quite as favorable conditions as the one selected ; 

 but the simple presence of a successful industry seems to turn 

 men's thoughts in that direction, and lead them to undertake 

 similar enterprises rather than to attempt the dangerous experi- 

 ment of importing a new manufacture. To this principle of gre- 

 gariousness, as well as to the wide wastes of sand, must the com- 

 munity of glass- workers in southern New Jersey be attributed. 

 Like apparently begets like. 



Fig. 1. A Glass-Bottle Factory at Southern New Jersey. 



There is little that is attractive about the exterior of such a 

 bottle-factory. One finds it set down in the midst of a flat, mo- 

 notonous country, and surrounded by indifferent wooden houses 

 with bare, sandy door-yards which bespeak small appreciation of 

 the element of beauty. That these houses are homes, and are for 

 the most part owned by those who live in them, adds immensely 

 to their interest, but it does not conceal the fact that life here is 



