The shaping of the molten glass into tables of _crown_ is different in detail. The globular mass formed by the first blowings is held by a workman vertically over his head. An assistant gathers a small quantity of soft glass from the furnace on the end of a pointed iron rod, and causes it to adhere to the flattened surface, at a point opposite to that to which the blowpipe is attached. The glass near the blowpipe, while hot, is touched with a cold instrument, and immediately cracks around its neck, detaching the blowpipe from the mass. The pointel is taken by the blower, and the opening formed by the removal of the blowpipe is placed opposite to what is called a "flashing" furnace, that is, a furnace with a large circular opening in its front, and which is heated to such an intense degree, that it is impossible for a person unaccustomed to it to approach within several feet of the furnace-mouth. The workman generally wears a shield or screen to protect the upper part of his body and face. The glass becomes softened by the heat, and the workman gives his pointel a rotary motion, somewhat similar to that which a housemaid gives to a mop when she trundles it; and as the glass softens, the opening gets larger and larger, until at last the softened mass instantaneously flashes out into a circular sheet, an operation which produces a very startling effect upon the eyes of anyone beholding it for the first time. The circular crown table thus made is detached from the pointel, and the mass of glass which caused it to adhere forms what is known by the name of the bull's eye. The table thus made is, like the sheet, placed in an annealing furnace, and there left for a proper length of time.