GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 



the pot, skilfully turning and twisting it, and bringing 

 out a mass, ranging in weight from twenty to forty 

 pounds, clinging to the end, which represents a future 

 pane of glass of definite size and thickness. This he 

 twists and turns in an iron mold until it assumes a per- 

 fect pear shape, passing it on at once to the blower 

 the master- workman of the establishment, whose task 

 is at once picturesque and laborious. 



Skill alone, which on the one hand is absolutely 

 essential, is not the only requirement in the make-up 

 of a master glass-blower. Obviously the man who is 

 to swing and turn a forty-pound mass at the end of an 

 iron rod continuously for many minutes, exhausting 

 himself still further meanwhile by repeatedly blowing 

 quantities of air into the mass, not pausing until a great, 

 hollow cylinder is produced, must have muscle and en- 

 durance far above the average. For this reason good 

 blowers are almost always in demand. 



In blowing these long cylinders, the workmen stand 

 over deep pits dug in the floor of the room. " The work- 

 man at first blows lightly," says M. Peligot, "drawing 

 out the vitreous mass a little, so as to give it the form 

 of a pear; he balances his rod, then raises it so as 

 to gather the glass. He afterward blows harder at 

 short intervals, and gives it a movement backward and 

 forward like the clapper of a bell, so as to strengthen 

 the pear, which assumes a cylindrical form. He raises 

 it rapidly over his head, then gives it a complete and 

 rapid rotary movement, in order to lengthen it, while 

 giving it an equal thickness in every part. 



: ' When the cylinder is made, the blower brings it 

 VOL. ix. 19 [ 289 ] 



