120 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



per cent, was produced at the Bureau of Standards which was 

 rapidly approaching its schedule of two tons per month when 

 the armistice was signed. KeufTel and Esser made glass for 

 their own use. At the close of the war the maximum capacity 

 of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company plant was above 

 50,000 pounds per month, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Com- 

 pany, 40,000 pounds, and the Spencer Lens Company more 

 than 15,000 pounds. The optical companies will continue pro- 

 duction and development work with the object of making the 

 best glass in the world for their own use and for others. Some 

 scale of the operation can be conveyed by the statement that in 

 the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company plant 33 million cubic 

 feet of gas were required monthly. 



Another achievement has been the percentage of glass found 

 usable. All German reports place 20 per cent, as a maximum 

 ' and state that from 15 to 18 per cent, is more nearly the aver- 

 age. The record shows that toward the end of the war, an 

 average of 23^ P er cent, of all optical glass produced at one 

 of our large plants was usable. Transmission now equals 

 that of the Jena glass, as does the absorption, which has been 

 reduced 0.5 per cent, per centimeter of glass. 



To record thus briefly the contributions of certain scientists 

 and manufacturers for the winning of the war seems inade- 

 quate in view of the tremendous obstacles which had to be 

 overcome under unusual pressure. Increased production 

 meant much more than merely the multiplication of manufac- 

 turing units, and to have accomplished all that was done is only 

 equaled by certain other scientific work where, as in this case, 

 it was necessary in a few months to cover the ground that had 

 been covered elsewhere during a period of years. 



