848 Some Account of the late M. Guinand. 



blast-furnace three or found pounds of glass; he took care, in 

 every experiment, to note down the substances and proportions of 

 his combinations, the time of their fusion, and, as nearly as pos- 

 sible, the degree of heat to which he had subjected them ; then, 

 by an attentive examination of the results of his experiments, he 

 endeavoured to discover the causes which had rendered his pro- 

 <dacts defective, in order that he might obviate them on a subse- 

 quent trial. While occupied in these researches he derived a 

 strong incentive to perseverance, from the prizes which he under- 

 stood to have been offered for this desideratum by different aca- 

 demies, and especially by the Royal Society of London, a copy 

 of whose proposals was procured for him. At a later period he 

 also learned, in a more positive manner, from the statements 

 given in the first volume of the Bibliothcque Britannique, the 

 almost total impossibility which existed of procuring flint-glass 

 exempt from striae ; all this impressed him with the importance 

 of the discovery at which he was aiming, and stimulated him in 

 the pursuit. These experiments, however, made, as he observed, 

 on too small a scale, all proved fruitless. 



At the age of forty and upwards, having relinquished the trade 

 of watch-case maker for that of maker of bells for repeaters, at 

 that time very lucrative, (since he could make as many as twenty- 

 four in a day, for which he was paid five francs each ;) lie resolved 

 to prosecute his experiments on a more extended scale. Having 

 purchased a piece of ground in a retired place on the banks of 

 the river Doubs, near the Brenets, where his establishment is at 

 present situated, he constructed, with his own hands, a furnace 

 capable of melting at one time two hundred weight of glass, and 

 settled there with his family on a very economical plan, in order 

 to dedicate all his earnings and leisure to new and expensive 

 experiments. 



His perseverance, however, had to overcome many untoward 

 accidents, which would probably have deterred most persons from 

 continuing the research. At one time his furnace, which he had 

 not been able to construct with the requisite precautions, threat- 

 ened to burst while heating, and he was obliged to re-build it 



