In the whole range of human invention, it would be difficult to point to a more ingenious or interesting result than the Manufacture of Glass. "Although perfectly transparent itself," says a popular illustrator of its history, "not one the materials of which it is made, partakes of that quality;" a combination, which may, at the period of its invention, have been as astounding as the identity of charcoal and the diamond, established by the chemical philosopher of our time.

The art of making Glass is reputed to have been discovered by accident. This inference is strengthened by the fact, that it is scarcely possible to excite a fire of sufficient heat for metallurgical operation without vitrifying part of the bricks or stones of the furnace. Of such imperfect vitrification, the "Glass" occasionally dug up on the sites of buildings destroyed by great conflagrations, is a specimen.