THE GLASS INDUSTRY. 
The Glass Industry. 
By EWEN MACKINNON, B.A., B.Sc. 
Glass making has been included in the list of key industries by the 
British Government. In his speech on August 18, 1919, when moving 
the adjournment of the House of Commons, the Prime Minister referred 
to the necessity for shielding “unstable key industries.” What is 
meant by a key industry and what is the cause of instability in the 
glass trade? To answer the first part of the question there are four 
tests that have been applied as follows :— 
(1) Was the industry found to be essential for war purposes or 
for the maintenance of the country during the war? 
(2) Was it discovered, during the war, that the industry in 
question had been so neglected that there were not sufficient goods 
produced to supply the essential war requirements? 
(8) Was it found necessary for the Government to take special 
steps to assist and foster that industry during the war? 
(4) If the special.Government support were withdrawn, could 
the industry maintain itself at the level of production which the 
war needs have shown to be essential to the national life? 
To be termed a key industry would require answers in the affirmative 
to questions one, two, and three, and the answer to four would partly, 
indicate,the amount of instability, as a stabilized trade would quickly: 
return to normal pre-war conditions, and only a key industry would be: 
likely to need the continuance of the Government support. The key: . 
industry in the present question includes the following sections in par-. 
ticular of the glass industry: Optical glasses (including lenses), prisme. ' 
and like optical devices, scientific and optical instruments, scientific 
glassware, illuminating glassware, laboratory ware, and potassium com-_ 
pounds. To assist in stabilizing the industry the Board of Trade wall: 
prohibit the importation of foreign goods except on licence. 
The glass industry in itself is not of very great magnitude, and it 
comes as a revelation to most people to know that it is, in some of its 
aspects, of such vital importance. (There are now about 400 firms 
engaged in glassware manufacture in Great Britain, and the employees 
number about 50,000.) Another industry of a key character, and now 
more generally known, is the dye industry, which controls indirectly. 
much of the work and wages in the textile industries. Early in the war 
we knew of the urgent need for optical glasses for officers of the Aus- 
tralian Imperial Force, but probably few people in Australia knew of 
such things as the following:—(1) The urgent requests from the steel 
works at Sheftield, Leeds, Manchester, and other places for suitable sup- 
plies of chemical glassware to carry on their important work for war 
purposes. (2) The supply of miners’ lamp glasses, to enable the miners 
to keep up the supply of coal for the Navy, for factories, for the Allies, 
&c.; so serious was the need that the Government had to relax the re- 
strictions against German glasses, and also to modify the mining regula. _ 
tions, to overcome the difficulties. (38) The need of sights for guns of 
101 
