Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
104 of 123
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the furnaces for window-glass constructed under their directions being
for that fuel only; on the other hand, the English workmen who
introduced the making of flint-glass had made use of no other fuel than
coal, and the English were therefore obliged to adopt (for the want
of coal) the German plan for furnaces, and adapt the same to the making
of flint-glass. The house was like the furnace, half English and half
German, and from the year 1812, for thirty years, little or no improvement
was made in this particular. Years after year the old plan was followed,
until necessity paved the way for new plans in the effort to secure a less
expensive mode of melting glass.
The result has been highly favorable. More than
one half has been saved in the melt, annealing leers, and working places,
yielding the workmen greater space and facilities in performing their
work, and no longer exposing them to the discomfort of extra heat, smoke,
and unhealthy gases. These improvements have enabled the American
manufacturer to sustain his business in the severe and trying competition
with foreign manufacturers, who forced their glass into this country through
their agents a few years since, in such quantities, and at such reduced
prices, as seriously to affect the prosperity
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