440 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing out for the most part simply bottles and the rougher sorts of 

 domestic wares. They finally stopped operations in 1670, "for 

 lack of capital." 



In New York, Jan Smeedes was making hollow ware in glass 

 somewhat before the year 1664, and his enterprise gave the name 

 of the " Glass-Makers' Street " to the lane in which he worked. 

 He does not seem to have had any successor, however, for after 

 his death the industry disappears from the records until the fol- 

 lowing century. 



Well-meaning efforts were also made to establish the industry 

 in Pennsylvania in the closing years of the century, but they do 

 not seem to have been successful. In a letter, written in 1683, 

 Penn alludes to a glass-house then existing in Philadelphia, and 

 speaks hopefully of its prospects ; but these were never realized. 

 Yet there seems to have been a good market for window glass at 

 least, if we are to credit the following doggerel, written by Holme 



in 1689 : 



" The window glass is often here 

 Exceeding scarce and very dear, 

 So that some in this way do take 

 Isinglass windows for to make." 



These are the only known records of glass-making during the 

 seventeenth century. None of the attempts became permanent 

 industries. The advantages of cheap and abundant fuel and of 

 easily obtainable alkali were more than offset by the correspond- 

 ing disadvantages found in all new communities. In some of the 

 colonies there was no accessible market. But the greatest obstacle 

 was the pressure of more remunerative occupations upon the at- 

 tention of the glass-workers. Land was everywhere abundant 

 and could be had almost for the asking. The temptation to pass 

 from the artisan class to the ranks of the gentry was a strong one 

 in the minds of European workers. It was an unusual oppor- 

 tunity, and in both this and the following century the privations 

 of early agriculture were willingly endured for a time by those 

 who had originally come to the colonies for the purpose of service 

 or the trades, in order that they might ultimately enjoy the satis- 

 faction of being landholders. This " desertion," as it was called 

 by the wage-paying classes, led to the abandonment of many 

 promising manufacturing enterprises. America stood then, per- 

 haps more than now, for personal liberty and individualism. Men 

 seem to have been 'less willing to sell themselves into industrial 

 slavery, and more anxious to remain their own masters. 



The eighteenth century witnessed an extensive revival of the 

 glass industry, and gave birth to some of the most important es- 

 tablishments of the present day. This activity was, however, 

 crowded into the latter part of the century. 



