We have gone into this subject more fully, on account of its importance, and intimate connection with the casting of guns, and the different qualities of iron. In fire-works, it will appear obvious, that the various properties exhibited by iron are owing to the iron and carbon, to the changes which they undergo, to the combustion which necessarily ensues, and to the production of oxide of iron, and carbonic acid gas; effects that invariably take place, whether cast iron or steel be used, provided it is exposed to the action of agents, under the same circumstances and conditions. _Sec. XLVII. Of Glass._ Glass, in the form of powder or dust, is used in fire-works. The pulverization of glass is easily performed. It may be done in an iron mortar, and passed though fine wire or brass sieves. It is used in the composition for wheels, in water balloons, cones, fire-pumps, slow white fire, &c. Glass is nothing more than fused silica, made by exposing a mixture of silica and other substances to the action of a violent heat. The quality of the glass depends on the proportion of silica, and the fluxes which are used in promoting its fusion; for the various kinds of glass, as white glass, green glass, bottle glass, &c. are all, in one respect, the same, though they differ in these particulars. The glass of Saint-Gobin in France is made by fusing white sand, lime, soda, and broken inferior glass. The white goblet-glass is made of sand, potash, lime, and old glass; the quantity of potash is about fifty per cent. If green, or yellow, the colour is destroyed by the addition of black oxide of manganese; and hence that oxide is named _glass makers' soap_. The common plate glass, for electrical machines, &c. is formed of sand, crude soda, old glass, and oxide of manganese. The bottle glass, made with the soda of marine plants, consists of sand, soda, common ashes, and old glass. Another bottle glass is made by melting common sand, black or yellow, with soda, wood-ashes, clay, and broken glass. It appears from the use of the substances which enter into, and compose, glass, that its quality is owing to the materials employed. The crystal or flint glass is a finer kind. The substances, with the proportions in which they are used, are the following: _Parts._ White sand, 100 Red lead, 80 to 85 Calcined potash (pearl-ash,) 35 to 40 Refined nitre, 2 to 3 Black manganese, 0.06 To this composition, there are sometimes added: _Parts._ White arsenic, 0.05 to 0.1 Crude antimony, 0.05 to 0.1 The specific gravity of this glass is 3.2. Goblets, lustres, &c. are made of it. Flint glass, according to the English formula, is made of