666 GLASS 



shape of that weapon. Every portion of the matter removed by the sabre is thrown 

 into a copper ladle (poche de gamin), which is emptied from time to time into a cistern 

 of water. After being skimmed, the bucket is lifted up, and brushed very clean on 

 its sides and bottom ; then, by the double handles of the suspension-tongs, it is swung 

 round to the table, where it is seized by the workmen appointed to turn it over; the 

 roller having been previously laid on its ruler-bars, near the end of the table which is 

 in contact with the annealing oven. The cuvette-man begin to pour out towards the 

 right extremity E of the roller, and terminate when it has arrived at the left extremity 

 D. While preparing to do so, and at the instant of casting, two men place within the 

 ruler-bar on each side, that is, between the bar and the liquid glass, two iron instru- 

 ments called hands, m m, m m, which prevent the glass from spreading beyond the 

 rulers, whilst another draws along the table the wiping bar c c, wrapped in linen, to 

 remove dust, or any small objects which may interpose between the table and the 

 liquid glass. 



Whenever the melted glass is poured out, two men spread it over the table, 

 guiding the roller slowly and steadily along, beyond the limits of the glass, and then 

 run it smartly into the wooden standard prepared for its. reception, in place of the 

 trestles vv. 



The empty bucket, while still red hot, is hung again upon the crane, set on its 

 plate-iron carriage, freed from its tongs, and replaced in the furnace, to be speedily 

 cleared out anew, and charged with fresh fluid from the pots. If, while the roller 

 glides along, the two workmen who stand by with picking tools perceive tears in the 

 matter in advance of the roller, and can dexterously snatch them out, they are suit- 

 ably rewarded, according to the spot where the blemish lay, whether in the centre, 

 where it would have proved most detrimental, or near the edge. These tears proceed 

 usually from small portions of semi- vitrified matter which fall from the vault of the 

 furnace, and from their density occupy the bottom of the cuvettes. 



While the plate is still red hot and ductile, about 2 inches of its end opposite to the 

 carquaise door is turned up with a tool ; this portion is called the head of the mirror ; 

 against the outside of this head, the shovel, in the shape of a rake without teeth, is 

 applied, with which the plate is eventually pushed into the oven, while two other 

 workmen press upon the upper part of the head with a wooden pole, 8 feet long, to 

 preserve the plate in its horizontal position, and prevent its being warped. The plate 

 is now left for a few moments near the throat of the carquaise, to give it solidity ; 

 after which it is pushed further in, by means of a very long iron tool, whose extremity 

 is forked like the letter y, and hence bears that name ; and is thereby arranged in 

 the most suitable spot for allowing other plates to be introduced. 



However numerous the manipulations executed from the moment of withdrawing 

 the cuvette from the furnace, till the cast plate is pushed into the annealing oven, they 

 are all performed in less than five minutes. 



When all the plates of the same casting have been placed in the carquaise, it is 

 sealed up ; that is to say, all its orifices are closed with sheets of iron, surrounded 

 and made tight with plastic loam. With this precaution, the cooling goes on slowly 

 and equably in every part, for no cooling current can have access to the interior of 

 the oven. 



After they are perfectly cooled, the plates aro carefully withdrawn one after another, 

 keeping them all the while in a horizontal position, till they are entirely out of the 

 carquaise. As soon as each plate is taken out, one set of workmen lower quickly :md 

 steadily the edge which they hold, while another set raise the opposite edge, till the 

 glass be placed upright on two cushions stuffod with straw, and covered with canvas. 

 In this vertical position they pass through, beneath the lower edge of the plate, thn-o 

 girths or straps, each four feet long, thickened with leather in their middle, and ending 

 in wooden handles ; so that one embraces the middle of the plate, and the other two 

 the ends. The workmen, six in number, now seize the handles of the straps, lift up 

 the glass closely to their bodies, and convey it with a regular step to the warehouse. 

 Here the head of the plate is first cut off with a diamond square, and then the whole 

 is attentively examined, in reference to its defects and imperfections, to determine the 

 sections which must be made of it, and the eventual size of the pieces. The parings 

 and small cuttings detached are set aside, in order to be ground and mixed with the 

 raw materials of another glass-pot. 



The apartments in which the rough ing-down and smoothing of the plates is per- 

 formed, are furnished with a considerable number of stone tables, truly hewn and 

 placed apart like billiard-tal.lrs, in a horizontal position, about 2 feet above the 

 ground. They are rectangular, and of different sizes proportional to the dimensions 

 of the plates, which they ought always to exceed a little. These tables are supported 

 either on stone pillars or wooden frames, and are surrounded with a wooden board, 

 whose upper edge stands somewhat below their level, and leaves in the space between 



