Up: Glassmaking
Reminiscences
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Yet, with all the perceptible inconveniences, no material change in
construction was made for centuries. The same plan was adopted in France
and England, and it is only within the present century that any change
has taken place in the latter country. In fact, in the year 1827 an
Englishman erected a glass factory on the same plan in the vicinity of
New York, which, from its defective construction for this climate, soon
passed out of use.
The Germans, however, departed from the Venetian
plan so far as to place the furnace in a large and well-ventilated building,
but without a furnace-cone to carry off the heat and smoke; still a decided
improvement was thus effected over the system in use in France and England.
The plan referred to shows to the practical workmen
of the present day the excessive waste of fuel arising from the construction
of the furnace; for the same expenditure of fuel in the American furnace
would melt ten times the material produced from the Venetian.
It is admitted that the American glass-house is
far in advance of the European ones at the present day, in the particulars
of capacity, ventilation, comfort of the workmen, and economy in fuel. An
impression is very prevalent that
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