making dots and lines, like a school-boy learning to write. Then I
made them on whole glass which we were not very particular about. At
the same time I gave my evenings to the study of drawing. I worked
hard; but a man can't accomplish much in this world unless he does
apply himself."
"Is it the copper wheel that cuts the glass?"
"No; it is the emery we put on the wheel."
"Do you work nights?"
"Not often. But sometimes, when we have orders
we are in a hurry to get done, I take a little work home with me in the
evening."
"How do you do it at home? Your lathes here
go by steam-power, don't they?"
"Yes; but I have a foot-lathe at home I can do my
work on, though it is harder. In some of the English factories
glass-engravers use foot-lathes altogether. Labor is cheap there."
"With the exception of this ornamental work, what
is the great difference between cut glass and common glass? I see they
go to work and grind down the round stems and sides of blown goblets into
just such shapes as they press other glass in."
In the first place, blown glass is freer from
waves and wrinkles; and the angles on cut glass are much sharper and
cleaner than on pressed glass. Although," added the engraver, admiring
the perfection of a pressed goblet, "they are getting to do some of their
pressed work so well, that, with a little subsequent burnishing, it almost
equals the cut.
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