The glass is withdrawn from the furnace by means of large iron ladles. These ladles are used of varying sizes in such a way as to contain the proper amount of glass to roll to the various sizes of sheets required. The sizes used are sometimes very large, and ladles holding as much as 180 to 200 lbs. of glass are used. These ladles, when filled with glass, are not carried by hand, but are suspended from slings attached to trolleys that run on an overhead rail. The ladler, whose body is protected by a felt apron and his face by a mask having view-holes glazed with green glass, takes the empty ladle from a water-trough, in which it has been cooled, carries it to the slightly inclined gangway that leads up to the opening in the front of the furnace, and there introduces the ladle into the molten glass, giving it a half-turn so as to fill it with a “solid” mass of glass. By giving the ladle two or three rapid upward jerks, the operator then detaches the glass in the ladle as far as possible from the sheets and threads of glass which would otherwise follow its withdrawal; then the part of the handle of the ladle near the bowl is placed in the hook attached to the overhead trolley, and by bearing his weight on the other end of the handle, the workman draws the whole ladle up from the molten bath in the furnace and out through the working aperture. This operation only takes a few seconds to perform, but during this time the ladler is exposed to great heat, as a more or less intense flame generally issues from the working aperture, whence it is drawn upward under the hood of the furnace. From the furnace opening, the ladler, generally aided by a boy, runs the full ladle to the rolling table and there empties the ladle upon the table just in front of the roller. In doing this, two distinctly different methods are employed. In one, only the perfectly fluid portion of the glass is poured out of the ladle by gradually tilting it, the chilled glass next to the walls of the ladle being retained there and ultimately returned to the furnace while still hot. In the other method, the chilling of the glass is minimised as far as possible, and the entire contents of the ladle are emptied upon the rolling table by the ladler, who turns the entire ladle over with a rapid jerk which is so arranged as to throw the coldest part of the glass well away from the rest. When the sheet is subsequently rolled this chilled portion is readily recognised by its darker colour, and since it lies entirely at one end of the sheet it is detached before the sheet goes any further. Neither method appears to present any preponderating advantage. [Illustration: FIG. 9.--Rolling table for rolled plate-glass.]