THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 



589 



inches. It is almost needless to say that the sole fuel used in all 

 these works is natural gas. It has, indeed, made possible their 

 large extension and success. At Ford City alone contracts were 

 recently given for the drilling of seven wells at the same time. 



In the second producer of glass in the United States, New Jer- 

 sey, there has also been a continuity of operation not met with 

 elsewhere. The early factories of Salem County and at Glassboro 

 were the nucleus of a large and thriving glass settlement. The 

 very favorable natural conditions early made the State the center 

 of the bottle trade. Many of the works established during the 

 first half of the century went out of existence after a few years' 



Interior View of the Grinding Hall at Ford City, Pa. 



more or less successful run. But others, such as the works estab- 

 lished at Millville in 1822, continue among the most important 

 in the State. The introduction of anthracite as a fuel does not 

 seem to have been made until 1856, though even at the present 

 time wood is largely used in the annealing ovens. The weakest 

 element in the New Jersey glass industry lies right here, in her 

 deficient fuel. With various town corporations in Ohio and else- 

 where offering natural gas free to glass-producers, the competi- 

 tion is very unequal, for the manufacture of bottles requires no 

 great purity in the sand and no very special skill in the blower. 

 Yet' this rivalry appears to have been successfully met, for there 

 has been during recent years a marked increase in the output of 



