io8 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



Some time previous to this date Victor Martin, a Belgian 

 glass-maker, had come to this country with the hope of starting 

 an optical glass industry in America. He found European 

 glass very strongly intrenched and no producer of optical glass 

 in any way interested in his project, even provided satisfactory 

 glass could be produced. He turned again to the plate-glass 

 industry, but was fortunately attracted by an advertisement 

 placed by Mr. Bausch in the hope of securing an experienced 

 optical glass man to assist him in his work. In the spring of 

 1912 Mr. Bausch personally engaged Mr. Martin and serious 

 work began. There was some difference of opinion as to 

 whether the considerable expense involved in developing the 

 industry was justified in view of the fact that European sources 

 of supply were so satisfactory and the price of glass, which 

 was from $1.50 to $20 per pound, was considered reasonable. 

 Experimental work, therefore, was discontinued during the 

 late autumn of 1913 and was not again taken up until the spring 

 of 1914. Some usable glass was made from 1912 on and in the 

 autumn of 1914 two single pot furnaces of the regenerative type 

 and one pot arch were constructed at Rochester. Small pots 

 were used at first and it was not until May, 1915, that the first 

 melt in a pot, 26 by 26 inches, was made. 



The outbreak of the war brought the seriousness of the glass 

 situation to the attention of the Bureau of Standards, and in 

 the winter of 1914-15 experimental furnaces and auxiliary 

 apparatus were installed at the Pittsburgh laboratory, with the 

 intention of starting at the bottom and working out the par- 

 ticular technique peculiar to the making of optical glass. The 

 first i,ooo-pound pot was installed in this plant during the 

 winter of 1916. In August, 1914, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass 

 Company began correspondence with the optical instrument 

 makers and in April, 1915, began their preliminary work, 

 strong in the belief that they could develop glass that would 

 meet all the requirements. They passed rapidly through the 

 experimental stages to xo-inch and then i6-inch pots, taking 

 over plate-glass furnaces for the purpose of melting optical 



