THE

POPULAR SCIENCE

MONTHLY.

MARCH, 1893.

THE GLASS INDUSTRY.

BY PROF. C. HANFORD HENDERSON.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE

AT

COLUMBUS. XVII.

T the beginning of the eighteenth century the glass industry was practically dead. The latter part of the century witnessed its slow revival. Some of these enterprises were shortlived; others outlasted the century. No very striking improvements were made, the most noted change being the substitution of coal for wood. But an immense amount of experience had been gained, and meanwhile a home market had grown up. The nineteenth century, therefore, opened with very flattering prospects. A united people had taken the place of a group of scattered colonies, while the improved standards of domestic comfort made greater demands upon the glass-maker's skill. The majority of people were no longer willing to make oiled paper do duty for glass in their windows, though even now, at the close of the century, there are thousands of cabins throughout the South which are destitute of a single window of any sort whatever. There was also an increased demand for glass table furniture and articles of luxury. The invalidism of an aging civilization created an unhappy market for patent medicines and other nostrums which must needs be put up in glass bottles. Greater delicacy in diet gave rise to the preservation of fruit and vegetables for the winter season, and made the production of jars for the purpose almost a separate industry. Both technical conditions and social requirements have thus conspired during the present century to forward the development of glass-making. Its history divides into two

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periods, that preceding and that following the introduction of natural gas as fuel. The century opened with the almost universal use of wood, the new and experimental plant at Pittsburg alone making use of coal. It ends with an almost universal use of natural gas, where it can be obtained, and an unmistakable tendency to substitute manufactured gas for coal where Nature has not supplied the gaseous fuel.

The States which now lead the glass industry, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were already at the front in the beginning of the century. In Pennsylvania there were a number of enterprises on foot. Philadelphia took quite an active part in this development. The Kensington works, established by Robert Towars and Joseph Leacock in the fall of 1771, had passed through a number of hands, but was fairly continuous in its operations. It ultimately came into the possession of the Rowland family, and was sold by them in 1833 to Dr. Thomas W. Dyott, a notable figure in the annals of our early glass-making. They were at this time the most extensive glass works in the country, melting about 8,000 pounds of batch every day and turning out something like 1,200 tons of glass a year. This was chiefly in the form of bottles and druggists' supplies. There were five furnaces adapted for burning both coal and wood, as well as North Carolina rosin. From two hundred and fifty to three hundred hands were employed in carrying out the various operations. Dr. Dyott failed in 1838, and the works were idle for several years, thus losing their former prestige. There were also window-glass works at the Falls of the Schuylkill, and another lower down on the river at South Street wharf. When the first census of manufactures was taken, in 1810, there were two glass works in the county and one within the city limits, the joint product of which amounted to only $26,000. Glass-making does not seem at that time to have been very successful in Philadelphia, for in 1820 there was but one plant reported in the whole county. In that year a co-operative flintglass works was started in Kensington, but it did not succeed. In 1840 there was but one works reported.

Here as elsewhere throughout eastern Pennsylvania there has been, since then, a steady increase in productive power, but relatively there has been a marked decrease in the industry. The character of the product, too, has changed. Philadelphia probably produces at the present time about two million dollars' worth of glass a year. None of this, we believe, is sheet or window glass, except a little for decorative windows. The most of it consists of the fancier sorts of hollow ware, lamps, globes, chimneys, cut glass, and other forms of domestic glassware and of articles of luxury. The reason of this change is quite obvious. In the production of glass in the mass, such as window glass and plate glass, Philadel

phia and the eastern part of the State could not possibly compete with the Pittsburg district. The conditions are much less favorable in the matter of fuel and crude materials. Skilled labor, however, is more available, and artistic influences are more in the air. In the production of this finer ware the intellectual element is so much the larger ingredient that the cost of the bare material itself is of less moment. In consequence we find Philadelphia at the present time an important center in what may be called the æsthetic department of glass-making. We find here the manufacture of large quantities of decorated gas globes, together with such other wares as require the etching action of hydrofluoric acid, and of cut and engraved articles of various designs and for multiform It was here that the process of making cameo glass was imported from England. This department of glass-making, it is true, has not proved commercially successful, but the manufacture of the cameo ware well illustrates the tendency toward variety of product which is shown by industrial centers depending for success upon nicety of workmanship rather than quantity of output.

These conditions have also given rise to the invention of machines and processes noted for their ingenuity and importance. The sand blast, by which glass is quickly and cheaply ground by exposure to a blast of air charged with sharp sand, is the invention of a Philadelphia gentleman, General B. F. Tilghman.. So powerful is the abrading action that a plate of corundum may be drilled in this manner, and even the diamond is worn away. The blast has also been applied to the manufacture of files, and to the drilling of metal plates.

The industry also started up in a number of other districts in the eastern part of the State. The attempt made by Mr. George Lewis, an English gentleman, to establish glass works at Eaglesmere some time between 1803 and 1809 was scarcely less picturesque than the earlier efforts of Baron Steigel. In 1886 the ruins of the glass-house were still to be seen on an eminence overlooking the lake. An old frequenter of the place-for it has since become a well-known summer resort-was fortunate enough to have in his possession some excellent specimens of the early glass. But in the first decade of the century it must have been a lonely place, and we can not help wondering that any one should have had the temerity to put a glass-house there. It is true that the natural conditions were good. The sand at one end of the lake is beautifully white and pure, while the surrounding forests furnished an abundance of fuel and alkali. The glass-making seems to have been a technical success, and it is said that Mr. Lewis made considerable money during the War of 1812, but the difficulties of transportation were ultimately too