i6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ties in all stages of development. There is complete singleness of 

 purpose. They are all intent on turning out the largest number 

 of bottles possible for the pay is largely by the piece. Where 

 the bottles are very small, one man has been known to blow 

 as many as two hundred dozen in a day, but this is exceptional 

 activity. 



There are, all told, seven persons in such a shop : three men, of 

 whom two blow the bottles, while a third, the gaffer, forms the 

 necks, and four boys who gather the molten glass, open the molds, 

 and carry away the finished products. The gatherer is a some- 

 what older hoy than the others, and stands in direct line of pro- 

 motion ; is, in fact, a blower or gaffer in embryo. He aspires the 

 others but distantly. One shop is attached to each boot ; and occa- 

 sionally, when work presses, there are two shops to a boot, but this 

 is rather crowding things and is not favorable to the best working. 

 The process begins with the gatherer. His blowpipe is a tube of 

 wrought iron, five or six feet long, and of lighter weight than the 

 pipe used in blowing window glass. He dips the end of his pipe 

 into the molten contents of the boot, and brings out a mass of red- 

 hot plastic glass. If the bottles to be blown are small, one gath- 

 ering suffices, but, for larger wares, two or even three gatherings 

 may be necessary to get the requisite supply of material on the 

 end of the blowpipe. When the gathering is done properly, this 

 lump of red-hot glass is a perfectly homogeneous mass. Its subse- 

 quent fortunes rest with the blower. He takes the blowpipe from 

 the gatherer, and, resting the plastic glass against a marvering 

 table of stone or cast iron, he gives the pipe a few adroit rotations, 

 thus fashioning the glass into an even cylindrical shape. By 

 further rolling it along the edge of the table he forms the smaller 

 prolongation of glass which is afterward to become the neck of 

 the bottle. Lifting the still red-hot glass from the table, he blows 

 through the pipe, forming a small bubble of air in the interior of 

 the mass of glass. This is afterward extended until it becomes 

 the inwardness of the bottle. 



The partly fashioned bit of glassware is now introduced into 

 the mold which one of the " shop " boys has already opened to 

 receive it. For convenience in working, the mold is placed on a 

 somewhat lower level than that on which the blower stands. It 

 is made of cast iron, and is commonly formed in two pieces. One 

 of these is stationary, while the other opens outward, its motion 

 being controlled by a foot-lever. When the blower places his in- 

 complete bottle, still attached to the blowpipe, into the mold, he 

 closes the mold with his foot, and blows through the pipe until 

 the plastic glass is everywhere forced against the sides of the 

 mold, and has impressed upon it the form of its prison. Then 

 with a quick motion the blower detaches his blowpipe from the 



