British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.Arnoux, Léon
History
British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.
Arnoux, Léon
Manufacturing industries -- Great Britain
It has lately come to my knowledge that flint glass, that is to say,
the glass used for tumblers, decanters, and such like, is occasionally
injured by the appearance in it of little opaque white spots. Some
portions of glass of this character have been analyzed by me, when I
found that these white spots were owing to the presence of a glass
containing alumina. Now alumina raises the melting point of any glass
of which it is a constituent. So, then, these white spots were due to
the presence in the flint glass, which was perfectly clear, of a much
less fusible glass which was only partly made when the flint glass was
ready for working. On investigating the matter, it was found that the
alumina came from the glass-pots, for when by my advice the faulty pot
was withdrawn from the furnace and carefully examined, although it had
been in work only six weeks, the bottom was honey-combed to a very
considerable extent, showing that portions of the pot had been
dissolved; and inasmuch as the fire-clay, of which the pots are made,
contains a large quantity of alumina, it was not difficult to trace
the source of these white spots which had rendered useless much very
valuable glass. On inquiry it was found that the pots had been made
entirely of new clay, and on reference to the book of workings, which
was kept in the glass-house, it was also found that for some time, the
glass-pots used in that establishment had been made of new clay, and
that on a previous occasion a similar calamity had before happened.
In the records kept where pots were made, as has already been
described, with a portion of old pot as well as new clay, no white
spots had ever appeared in the glass. It is therefore manifest, that
it is much safer to use a portion of old pot than to trust to pots
made entirely of new clay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account