VI.
MOULDING AND PRESSING.
The gaffer now took his visitors around to another
side of the blowing-room, and showed them the process of blowing glass
into a mould. This was of cast-iron, and worked by a boy, who opened and
shut it by means of handles. The blower gathered the melted glass, rolled
it on a marver, blew into it slightly, then dropped it, in a long,
purse-shaped, glowing lump, into the open mould. This was immediately
closed by the boy; then the blower blew until a bubble, pushed up on the
top of the mould, expanded to the size of a football, and to the thinness
of the thinnest transparent film, and finally burst with a loud pop,
flying into shreds of tinsel, light as feathers. The mould was then
opened, and a caster-vial with figured sides was exposed. This was taken
up by a second boy on a "snap-dragon,"-- a rod something like a ponty,
but with a socket at the end for holding articles of glass,-- and carried
to a glory-hole, where the round, open top was heated. It was then
passed to a workman seated in a chair, who shaped the top, and pressed
into it a piece of iron called a "lip-maker." The top was then a mouth,
and the vial became a "vinegar," as the boys called it. Another man
was blowing "mustards," in the same way; and a third was blowing "inks."
"Does it blow easy?" Lawrence inquired of the last.
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