66 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



ladies constructed simply of glass ? Have we not 

 made an imitation of the great Kohinoor diamond 

 so perfect that, by the eye, it cannot be distin- 

 guished from the original ? As regards colors, no 

 specimens of ancient glass excel, or even compare 

 with those produced in the present century. The 

 brilliancy of our tints and their permanency have 

 never been surpassed. But what of the malleable 

 glass of the ancients ? We do not believe any 

 such glass was ever produced. The statements of 

 Dion Cassius and Petronius Arbiter regarding the 

 production of ductile glass by a celebrated Roman 

 architect, are probably only other versions of the 

 story told by Pliny regarding the artificer who, for 

 making the same discovery, had his workshop de- 

 molished by a mob, who feared it would lower the 

 value of gold, silver, and brass. The story is, that 

 a vessel of this glass was brought into the presence 

 of the Emperor Tiberius by the discoverer, and 

 dashed upon the floor without breaking, the effect 

 of the blow only indenting or bruising it a little 

 The inventor then took a hammer from his pocket 

 and beat it out into its original shape, as if it had 

 been made of thin metal. This is absurd. Glass 

 is a vitrified substance ; and it is now, and always 

 has been, impossible to associate with it the prop- 

 erty of malleability. 



The glass of the ancients, like our own, was a 



