GLASS 



2510 



GLAUBER'S SALT 



buildings. Colored glass has the special virtues 

 of holding its color and of not being subject to 

 decay, and it is therefore a valued material 

 for decorative effects. 



Some Curiosities of Glass-Making. During 

 the World's Columbian Exposition held at 

 Chicago in 1893 an exhibition of spun glass 

 created wide attention. This was woven into 

 cloth from which was made a dress for the 

 queen regent of Spain. White silk constituted 

 the warp and glass the woof, and the fabric 

 was woven on a hand loom. Spun glass is 

 made by melting a glass rod in the flame of a 

 blowpipe, and drawing the melted thread over 

 a wheel which revolves at a high rate of speed. 

 The iridescent effect seen in frost work on 

 Christmas cards is produced by fine flakes of 

 glass. Another interesting use of glass may 

 be seen in the collection of "fadeless flowers" 

 at Harvard University. There are in the col- 

 lection 800 large models, representing sprays 

 and clusters of flowers, and over 2,000 magni- 

 fied parts. Every object is made of glass, and 

 in color and form is an exact duplicate of the 

 natural flower. The flowers were made in 

 Germany by a secret process, and the collec- 

 tion is the only one of its kind in existence. 



Historical. The origin of glass making is 

 lost in antiquity. A fanciful story told by the 

 Roman writer Pliny credits a band of Phoeni- 

 cian merchants with the discovery of the art. 

 According to this legend, as the merchants 

 were returning from Egypt they landed on the 

 coast of Palestine, camped on a sandy beach 

 of the River Belus, and there built a fire. 

 Having placed some blocks of niter under 

 their cooking vessels to protect them from the 

 fire, they saw the substance melt, mingle with 

 the sand and form a liquid stream of glass. 

 Pliny, however, does not explain how the mild 

 heat of an open fire could accomplish what 

 to-day requires the intense heat of a modern 

 furnace, so his narrative is regarded merely 

 as an attempt to account for the origin of an 

 art that had reached a considerable degree of 

 perfection in Roman times. 



Statistics of Manufacture. The United 

 States imports yearly over $8,000,000 worth of 

 glass; its exports are valued at about $3,800,000. 

 There are about 365 glass factories in the 

 country, engaging the services of nearly 75,000 

 persons. The capital invested represents a 

 total of nearly $130,000,000, and a year's 

 products have a value of over $92,000,000. 

 The leading states engaged in the industry 

 are, in order of importance, Pennsylvania, 



Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, New York, Kan- 

 sas, New Jersey and Illinois. The glass-making 

 industry in America was greatly stimulated by 

 the outbreak of the War of the Nations, for 

 commerce with two of the greatest glass-pro- 

 ducing countries in the world, Austria and 

 Germany, was thereby interrupted. 



The Canadian provinces of British Columbia, 

 Ontario and Quebec are the chief centers of 

 the industry in the Dominion, the glass manu- 

 facturing establishments of which are capital- 

 ized at over $2,500,000. The value of the 

 yearly output of manufactured glass is about 

 $2,270,000; in addition, about $1,000,000 worth 

 of stained, cut and ornamental glass is pro- 

 duced. J.F.8. 



Consult Gaudy's Romance of Glass Making; 

 Dillon's Glass. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes contain information more or less 

 closely related to the general subject of glass : 

 Annealing Sand 



Bottle Stained Glass 



Lime Wire Glass 



GLASS SNAKE, a harmless reptile, snake- 

 like in form, but, like a lizard, with well- 

 developed eyelids and ear-openings. This shin- 

 ing creature of brightly-speckled olive, brown 

 or black, is common in Central, Southern and 



GLASS SNAKE 



Its average length is 27 inches ; greatest diame- 

 ter of body, % inch ; width of head, % inch ; 

 length of head, 1% inch. 



parts of the Eastern United States, in Great 

 Britain, Europe, Western Asia and Northern 

 Africa. It is a shy animal and lives chiefly on 

 earthworms, slugs and larvae (young) of in- 

 sects. Like the lizard, it can easily shed its 

 tail, which, when the animal is frightened, 

 stiffens and may be snapped off by a slight 

 blow; hence the name glass "snake." 



Blindworm, a smaller brown or silvery-gray 

 reptile similar to the glass "snake," so named 

 because the eyes are small and covered with 

 a transparent skin. It is common in Southern 

 California. 



GLAUBER'S, glau'berz, SALT, a substance 

 named after the German chemist, Johann Ru- 

 dolf Glauber (1604-1668), who first prepared it 



