MANUFACTURE OF GLASS. 



glass was used in their days. Pliny relates, that it was first dis- 

 covered accidentally in S)ria, at the mouth of the river IMus, 

 by certain merchants driven thither by a storm at sea ; who bfiii^ 

 obliged to continue there, and dress their virtual* by making a fire 

 on the ground, where there was great plenty of the herb kali ; 

 that plant burning to ashes, its salts mixed and incorporated with 

 the sand, or stones fit for vitrification, and thus produced glass ; 

 and that, this accident being known, the people of Sidon in that 

 tieighbourhood essayed the work, and brought glass into use ; since 

 which time the art has been continually improving. Be this as it 

 may, however, the first glass houses mentioned in history were 

 erected in the city of Tyre, and here was the only staple of the 

 manufacture for many ages. The sand which lay on the shore for 

 about half a mile round the mouth of the river lielus was peculi. 

 arly adapted to the making of glass, as being neat and glittering ; 

 and the wide range of Tyrian commerce gave an ample vent for 

 the productions of the furnace. 



Mr. Nixon, in his observations on a plate of glass found at Her- 

 culaueum, which was destroyed A. D. 80, on which occasion Pliny 

 lost his life, offers several probable conjectures as to the uses 

 to which such plates might be applied. Such plates, he supposes, 

 might serve for specula, or looking-glasses ; for Pliny, in speaking 

 of Sidon, adds, Siquidem etiam specula excogitaverat : the reflec- 

 tion of images from these ancient specula being effected by be. 

 smearing them behind, or tinging them through with some dark co. 

 lour. Another use in which they might be employed was for adorn, 

 ing the walls of their apartments, by way of wainscot, to which 

 Pliny is supposed to refer by his vitreae camerz, lib. xxxvi. cap. 

 25. s. 64. Mr. Nixon farther conjectures, that these glass plates 

 might be used for windows, as well as the lamina of lapis specu. 

 laris and phengites, which were improvements in luxury mention- 

 ed by Seneca, and introduced in his time, Ep. xc. However, 

 there is no positive authority relating to the using of glass-windows 

 earlier than the close of the third century : Manifestius est (says 

 Lactantius), mentem esse, quae per oculos ea quae sunt opposita, 

 transpiciat, quasi per fenestras lucentc vitro aut specular! lapide 

 obductas. 



The first time we hear of glass made among the Romans was in 

 the reign of Tiberius, when Pliny relates that an artist had his 

 house demolished for making glass malleable, or rather flexible ; 



