5 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and build up the largest communities in the shortest time. The 

 means employed were eminently socialistic. The business of 

 town "booming" was intrusted to the town corporation itself, 

 instead of being left to private effort. The town undertook the 

 work of exploration, drilling the wells, and finally of supply- 

 ing free gas to all manufacturing concerns which would settle 

 within the town limits. Tiffin has been particularly active in 

 these corporate ventures. In about one year it spent two hundred 

 thousand dollars in the work of development, and, besides the 

 pledge of free gas, furnished fifty thousand dollars to secure a 

 large glass factory. It was a somewhat daring policy, but it suc- 

 ceeded so well that other towns soon followed its example. Where 

 they had no money to give, they gave free gas and ten-acre lots. 

 Thus solicited, the glass industry became a willing immigrant 

 and invaded the State in generous proportions. This phase forms 

 indeed a curious chapter in our industrial history, and is a strong 

 contrast to the mortal struggles of our earlier glass-makers. 



The industry had a very similar history in Indiana, though on 

 a less extended scale and at a somewhat later period. The State 

 was early identified with the plate-glass manufacture, but it was 

 not until the development of natural gas that it took a prominent 

 place. The whole southeastern part of Indiana is underlaid by 

 the Trenton limestone, and is a highly productive gas territory. 

 Its history begins with the drilling of the Kokomo well in the 

 fall of 1886. This gave a daily output of two million cubic feet, 

 and was soon followed by others yielding six and seven million 

 feet. Throughout the entire State the work of exploration pro- 

 ceeded with astonishing rapidity. Few districts, indeed, have been 

 so thoroughly exploited. It is now one of the three chief gas- 

 producing areas in the United States, and has attracted a propor- 

 tionate number of glass factories. 



Certain branches of the industry, such as the manufacture of 

 plate glass, can hardly be said to belong to any State, for it has 

 shown itself decidedly peripatetic. The first attempts were prob- 

 ably those made at Cheshire, Mass., in 1852-'5. After an unprof- 

 itable run of six months, the works were removed to Brooklyn, 

 N. Y. Here there was more experimenting and more loss. The 

 enterprise was abandoned in 1856. This same year a second 

 attempt was made at Lenox, Mass. After some initial difficul- 

 ties and failures the works got successfully under way and con- 

 tinued to manufacture rough plate until the close of the war. A 

 new company was then formed and undertook the production of 

 polished plate. A machine which had been invented to grind and 

 polish marble was found to do equally good work on glass, and 

 was put into operation with excellent results. In a modified form 

 it is still employed, both in this country and in Europe. The com- 



