glassware to enable the chemist to carry out his delicate tests.
Upon the outbreak of the present war our supplies of certain types of
glassware were not made in Great Britain, but imported from abroad, and
it was owing to the energy and enterprise of a Scottish glass
manufacturer, with some assistance from a well-known scientist, that a
start was made in making these much-needed goods, and what might have
been a serious crisis was averted. Professor Herbert Jackson and the
Institute of Chemistry placed at the disposal of glass manufacturers
numerous formulas for the special glasses that were urgently required,
and later on this work was recognised by the Government; and now the
investigations are being continued by a committee, with the assistance
of the Government, under the control of the Ministry of Munitions. This
committee is now rendering the greatest assistance to manufacturers in
the general development of the glass trade and the reclamation of the
ground lost in previous years. There is now every hope that Britain may
raise again to eminence and perfection this very important industry of
glassmaking. One of the chief objects of this volume is to supply within
a small practical treatise the general available information upon glass
manufacture, much of which, although familiar to many manufacturers or
those engaged in glass works, will be of great assistance to those who
are commencing a study of this very interesting and complex subject.
Few people have any idea of the vast and enormous trade done on the
Continent in the manufacture of glassware for export to Great Britain
and British Possessions abroad, and on this account it is essential that
so important a subject as glass manufacture should form some part in the
technical education of our universities and trade schools, so that a
section of the rising generation may be taught to understand the
manufacture of such a necessary commercial product, and assist in
recapturing the trade from the Continental glass works in supplying our
needs. That some progress has been made along these lines is evident by
the establishment at Sheffield University of a school in Glass
Technology, and it is to be hoped that similar schools will be
established in other centres, staffed by capable instructors and
supported by the co-operation of the glass manufacturers.
The author gives in an Appendix the literature accessible to those who
wish for further information upon the subject, and trusts that, in the
presentation of these notes, in response to the demand for such a book,
a useful purpose will have been served by introducing the first
principles of glass manufacture to those interested.
It affords me great pleasure to acknowledge the valuable aid that has
been rendered me by Mr. S. N. Jenkinson, Professor Herbert Jackson, and
Mr. Frederick Carder, to whom I am much indebted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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