THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 591 



generator directly alongside of the melting chamber instead of 

 at a distance. The coal is burned on the ordinary step-grate to 

 carbon-monoxide gas which passes while still hot directly to the 

 combustion area. At the bridge separating the generator from 

 the melting chamber the gas mixes with the requisite amount of 

 heated air, and, being itself hot, produces by its combustion a suf- 

 ficiently intense heat to accomplish the perfect fusion of the batch. 

 This proximity of the generator to the melting chamber obviates 

 the great difficulty which had hitherto interfered with the use of 

 gas as a fuel in glass-making — that is, the difficulty in obtaining 

 a sufficiently high temperature. There are five of these tank fur- 

 naces at Glassboro, two at Salem, and one at Camden. This im- 

 provement is directly in line with local needs, since it has effected 

 a saving of over fifty per cent in the cost of fuel. The expression 

 is somewhat hackneyed, and unavoidably brings to mind the in- 

 dividual who was so delighted with a stove which saved fifty per 

 cent that he proposed to buy two and so save a hundred per cent ; 

 but the reported saving in the case of the furnaces is the result of 

 several years' experience and is quite authentic. Nor is this the 

 only saving effected by the tank furnaces. They do away with 

 the large expense of crucible pots and reduce the cost of repairs to 

 a purely nominal sum. 



No invention could have been more timely. In the face of the 

 serious competition at Pittsburg, the New Jersey bottle industry, 

 with its expensive fuel, would have fared but ill had it continued 

 to melt its sand and lime and alkali in the old-time pot furnace. 

 The tank furnace has served the industry in good stead. Within 

 the past few months another important improvement has been 

 introduced at Glassboro, in the substitution of crude petroleum 

 for coal as fuel. Formerly its use was limited to the "glory- 

 holes," where the mouths of the bottles were finished in an aure- 

 ole of yellow flame. Now it serves also for melting the glass and 

 annealing the ware. A large storage tank has been constructed, 

 and it is believed that in a short time oil will entirely supersede 

 the use of coal. A fourth chapter in the history of glass-making 

 may soon have to be written in which petroleum figures as the 

 dominant element. The Glassboro people, at least, are disposed 

 to look upon its introduction as somewhat epoch-making. 



At the present time the eyes of the bottle-making world are 

 also turned toward New Jersey for another reason. Their glance 

 centers upon Woodbury, for in that quiet village the destiny of 

 the bottle-blower may be said to be on trial. The Ashley bottle- 

 making machine has been set in operation to see if it can not do 

 the work of human hands and lungs, and do it better and more eco- 

 nomically. The machine was described before the British Associa- 

 tion in 1889, when it was stated that bottles had been made by the 



