Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
50 of 123
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Murano to Venice, or to any of the little assembled islands about here,
or to any other part of the earth beside, to use the same materials, the
same workmen, the same fuel, and the selfsame ingredients every way, yet
they cannot make crystal glass in that perfection for beauty and lustre
as at Murano. Some impute it to the circumambient air, which is purified
and attenuated by the concurrence of so many fires, that are in these
furnaces night and day perpetually, for they are like the vestal fires,
never going out."
There is no manufacturing business carried on by
man combining so many inherent contingencies, as that of the working of
flint glass. There is none demanding more untiring vigilance on the part
of the daily superintendent, or requiring so much ability and interest in
the work. Unlike all other branches of labor, it is carried on by night
and day, is governed by no motive power connected with steam or water, and
has no analogy to the production of labor by looms or machinery.
The crude material of earth being used, each portion
requires careful refining from natural impurities, and when compounded,
being dependent upon combustion in the furnace for its completion, (which
combustion is effected by change of
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