THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MARCH, 1893. 

 THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 



By Prof. C. HANFORD HENDERSON. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE 

 COLUMBUS. XVII. 



AT the beginning of the eighteenth century the glass indus- 

 try was practically dead. The latter part of the century 

 witnessed its slow revival. Some of these enterprises were short- 

 lived ; others outlasted the century. No very striking improve- 

 ments were made, the most noted change being the substitution of 

 coal for wood. But an immense amount of experience had been 

 gained, and meanwhile a home market had grown up. The 

 nineteenth century, therefore, opened with very nattering pros- 

 pects. A united people had taken the place of a group of scat- 

 tered colonies, while the improved standards of domestic comfort 

 made greater demands upon the glass-maker's skill. The majority 

 of people were no longer willing to make oiled paper do duty for 

 glass in their windows, though even now, at the close of the cen- 

 tury, there are thousands of cabins throughout the South which 

 are destitute of a single window of any sort whatever. There was 

 also an increased demand for glass table furniture and articles of 

 luxury. The invalidism of an aging civilization created an un- 

 happy market for patent medicines and other nostrums which 

 must needs be put up in glass bottles. Greater delicacy in diet 

 gave rise to the preservation of fruit and vegetables for the win- 

 ter season, and made the production of jars for the purpose almost 

 a separate industry. Both technical conditions and social require- 

 ments have thus conspired during the present century to forward 

 the development of glass-making. Its history divides into two 



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