190 MANUFACTURES OF RUSSIA. 



belonged to the family Koruiliev, and the last manager of it was Mrs. M. D. Men- 

 di'leeff, born Korniliev. After her departure, and after the fire which laid waste the fron- 

 tiers, this factory was closed. The discovery made by the academian Laxman, in 1764, 

 which was described in a pamphlet in 1795 and which had a great influence on the 

 whole glass industry, was also very early put to use in Siberia. Laxman discovered 

 that sulphate of sodium, which is always cheaper than soda, could be successfully 

 -luployed in the manufacture of glass. Coincident with that discovery sulphate of sodium 

 was found in Siberia, where it was known under the name of goudzhir, in very large 

 •laantities in the lakes, and glass began to be manufactured with the aid of this salt. 

 Sulphate of sodium is also found in nature in European Russia, in the government 

 ot Astrakhan. A merchant named Shilkin, in the government of Nerchinsk near the 

 lake Chagan Nor, opened the industry in 1781, and later on, Laxman together with 

 a merchant Baranov founded in 1784 new glass works near Irkutsk. Several years 

 after, the Siberian goudshir served as material for the local manufacture of soda and 

 of soap, at the works of M. B. Prang in the district of Minussinsk. 



Soon after the foundation of the manufactories of Maltsev the number of 

 glass works increased in Russia very rapidly. The most ancient of them, some of 

 which have till now retained their former places, were organized in the government 

 of Vladimir, the central point between the two principal Russian markets, Moscow 

 and Nizhni-Novgorod. They principally produced glass for table service; the works 

 of Maltsev also made sheet glass which continued for many years in general demand. 

 Later on, a north-central group of factories was formed where the manufacture of 

 window glass became highly developed. That group consisted of works situated near 

 the railroad leading from Moscow to St. Petersburg, in the governments of Tver, 

 Novgorod and of St. Petersburg. On both sides of these two centres, the northern 

 and southern, the manufacture of sheet glass was developed in the far eastern govern- 

 ments, Viatka and Perm, and in the south-east, in the government of the Volyn, 

 where also the industry has existed from ancient times. 



Some special branches of glass manufacture were introduced into Russia by some 

 foreigners at the beginning of the present centur}'. The necessity of procuring wares 

 or apothecaries and laboratories resulted in the foundation of a factory for the mak- 

 ing of chemical utensils. Such a factory was founded in 1880 by Ruting near St. Pet- 

 ersburg, district of Tsarskoe Selo, in the village Orlino, and till now it has done 

 much to develop the experimental science in Russia. Looking glasses have been made 

 at the Imperial Glass Works of St. Petersburg, at the Crown factory in Viborg, and 

 to some extent at those of iialtsev. They are mostly blown or Venetian mirrors. The 

 founders of private looking glass industry were foreigners, who organized works in 

 Livonia near Yuriev in 1792, and one in the government of Riazan in 1780, called 

 the Kiritsk works. At the present time the last named factory belongs to the family 

 Smolianinov. Later on, the Government works ceased to manufacture looking glasses 

 and the number of private factories have not increased ; generally speaking, the in- 

 dustry is but poorly developed in the Empire. Besides the articles of daily necessity, 

 such as white service glass, sheet glass of different sorts, and bottles, the favourite 

 objects of the Russian glass industry are, until the present day, Bohemian crystal, 

 that is, glass of high quality made with the aid of potash and lime, plain and figured, 

 and white Bohemian sheet glass of high grade. The abundance of potash and the 



