=Plate, Crown, and Sheet Glass.=--[HENRY CHANCE.]--(B. 147.) In the 1864 report it was mentioned that cast plate glass is manufactured at Smethwick (Plate Glass Company) crown, sheet, and rolled or rough plate glass at Smethwick (Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co.) and at Stourbridge (Stourbridge Glass Company.) Of these three manufacturing establishments, that of Messrs. Chance Brothers and Co. is the only one now in operation. Antique glass for decorative purposes and glass shades are manufactured at Oldbury by Messrs. W. E. Chance and Co. Crown glass is now almost extinct; Messrs. Chance however still make the very limited quantity required. The price of ordinary sheet glass has fallen from one shilling and twopence per foot in 1884 prior to the repeal of the duty, to three halfpence in 1886. Rolled plate glass is now made by most of the manufacturers of sheet glass, and by several firms who confine themselves to this branch of trade. The Siemens’ regenerative furnace has not only been successfully applied to furnaces containing pots, but by its aid Messrs. Siemens have been able to dispense with pots and employ large tanks made of clay, for the melting of glass. By this means the process of melting and working becomes continuous. The raw materials are introduced at one end of the tank furnace and arrive, after gradual transformation, at the other end, in the shape of melted glass. =Plated Wares.=--[ELKINGTON AND CO.]--(B. 477.) A great impetus has been given to the trade owing to the development of hotel life in London and all large towns, together with the equipments required for ocean-going steamers, in many cases special designs having reference to the building being required. On the other hand the taste of the public is now for simple and useful designs. The old form of stamping, in which the stamp was lifted by one or more workmen, has been superseded by the method described on page 172. A dish cover which formerly required hundreds of blows now requires only six, and instead of the old process of smoothing the surface with hammer and stake a “wheeling” machine is used, and the swage or shape lapped over instead of mounting with a wire, the time consumed being about one twentieth part of that required by the old process. Improvements in metals used enables the hollow bodies of coffee and tea services to be “spun” (see page 174) instead of being slowly raised into form by wooden mallets and steel hammers. Spinning oval bodies is now extensively practised, though at one time it was considered impossible to treat German silver in this way. This process (oval spinning) is used only when one or two articles of a particular shape are required. When great numbers are required stamping is the process adopted. Press work in shaping articles has considerably improved, and has replaced, to some considerable extent, the tedious process of chasing and embossing. Enamelling has been introduced, but owing to Japanese competition the