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
_Moulded and Cut Glass._--Flint glass is now very commonly blown
in moulds, and this art has been brought to such perfection that
moulded decanters and tumblers have an appearance very similar to that
of cut glass. The moulds are always made of metal, and so constructed,
that they open out into two or more pieces, which are generally hinged
to the bottom of the mould. The workman places it on the ground, and
fixes it by standing on projections from its side. He then gathers a
suitable quantity of glass on the end of his blowpipe, which he places
in the mould, and the side of the glass touching it will thus have
impressed upon it whatever form is engraved on it. After the glass has
become hard, the mould is opened, and the glass vessel is removed and
annealed.
When it is desired to cut a design on the outside of a tumbler or
wine-glass, the vessel is, in the first instance, blown of a thicker
substance than if it is to be left uncut. The necessary shapes, which
are usually in facets, are cut upon it by the action of sand and
water, a lathe of a very simple construction being used to give a
rotary motion to cutting discs, made of stone and kept continually
moist by water dripping on them, so that when the glass is pressed
against them, the required portion of its surface is worn away. The
usual diameter of these stones is about 10 inches. After the rougher
stone has been used, a finer kind of sandstone disc is employed, or a
disc of slate, upon which sand and water are allowed to drop, and the
already roughly cut surface is, by their action, partly polished.
Copper discs with flattened circumference are used for polishing the
glass, and for this purpose, emery mixed with oil, is applied to the
edges of their circumference.
_Ground Glass_ is made by rubbing the surface of glass with sand
and water, just as in the first operation of plate glass polishing.
But a very ingenious method is now generally adopted for grinding
glass, by placing it in a cradle, so that it can swing from side to
side; sand and water are placed upon the glass, and it grinds itself,
so to speak, by this operation.
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