GLASS WARES. 19") 



of fuel cousunied is a little greater than the ordinary technical standard, 7 to 8 parts 

 of wood to 1 part glass. This is influenced by the duration of the finishing of 

 the glass, which shows a little irregularity in some of the smaller works, espec- 

 ially in the western region. 



The prices of chemical materials used for manufacturing glass, except sand 

 and potash, are higher than abroad, as they are mostly imported. The soda costs ou 

 the spot 1.30 to 1.80 roubles per poud; Russian sulphate, 60 to 75, and foreign, 70 

 to 90 kopecks per poud. The average price, in the different localities, of Russian 

 potash for crystal factories is 2 roubles, and the so-called Warsaw potash, 3 to 3. GO 

 roubles per poud. Potash prepared from ash on the spot, as in some works, costs 

 about 1 rouble per poud. Sand for crystal, brought from a distance, ranges from 7 

 to 15 kopecks per poud. Some add to common sand Norwegian and Finnish quartz, 

 and pay for it, according to the distance of transport, 25 to 55 kopecks per poud : 

 chalk and lime, from 2 to 30 kopecks; and sodium nitrate, from 2 to 2.50 roubles pir 

 poud. 



The number of changes in the melting of glass varies in a given time in 

 factories producing sheet glass, and in those which make service glass. These changes 

 occur in Russian sheet glass works fourteen to eighteen times, and in service glass 

 works, twenty to twenty-live times a month. In all good crystal works, each step in the 

 process does not continue more than twenty-four hours, of which the melting occupies 

 ten to twelve hours, and the iinishing of the glass, eight to ten hours, no work being 

 done on Sundays. Sometimes the melting of coloured lamp masses, together with the 

 finishing them off, continues only sixteen hours. In the sheet glass industry very often 

 no holidays are taken into consideration, so that the men work 340 days, the numbei- 

 of batches not exceeding 220 a year. Besides the regular working ovens there is 

 always one in reserve in case of need, and therefore the work is seldom stopped. 



The class of workmen known as glassblowers was established in Russia long 

 ago; among them there are, as well as in other countries, real artists. The wages 

 they receive are the same as those paid in Bohemia, where a chief workman. 

 glassmacher-yneister, together with his two helpers and one boy, lehrlursche , receives 

 from sixty to one hundred guldens a month, out of which he himself pays his hel- 

 pers. In the Russian crystal industry a workman, with his two helpers, receives for 

 the making of common tumblers, which have about 250 cubic centimetres capacity 

 and weigh from seven and one-half to eight pouds per thousand and of which the 

 three workmen together can make 700 pieces during eight hours, 50 kopecks per 

 hundred of simple tumblers, 60 kopecks for the first sort and 45 kopecks for the 

 third; consequently from 3.50 to 4.20 roubles for one change of work, or from 80 to 

 100 roubles monthly. For the making of glasses each work-table, or set of workmen, 

 consists of two chiefs, one helper and several boys ; the latter receive their pay 

 independently. The press workmen receive less, namely 40 to 45 kopecks per hun- 

 dred. In the glass industry the total pay to a set of workmen, consisting of blowers 

 with their helpers, pressers, drawers and others, forms 40 to 60 per cent of the 

 total cost of the manufacture. 



In the production of sheet crown glass, the number ot batches being 14 to 18 

 per month, and in those by the Belgian method, the press workmen receive their pay 

 per sheet of glass. A certain number of these sheets form a so-called bunt, an old 



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