In many of these tools we perceive the same general characters as mark those in use now. In some, improvements have been effected; while others are quite obsolete. It is quite curious to observe the etymology of many of the technical terms of the art in use at the present day. The name of the present polished iron table, i.e. the MARVER, is derived from the practice of the Italians and French in using slabs of polished marble. The iron now called the punty, from the Italian ponteglo. The tool now called percellas, from the word porcello. In fact, nearly all the technical terms in the glass manufacture, appertaining to the tool or furnace, are derived from the Italian. By referring to the drawing, we see that the tool marked A is the blow-iron, that marked B the punty-iron. Their character plainly indicates that the work made on them must have been confined to small or light articles. C, the scissors, D, the shears, correspond to those used at the present day. The tool marked E was used to finish part of their work. F and G were their large and small ladles,—the small used to take off the then called alkalic salt, showing that they were troubled with an excess of this in their time. The shovel, then called stockle, marked H, was used to carry glass articles to the annealing oven, forks not being then in use. The crooked iron I was used to stir up the metal in the pots. The tool L was used to form or hold large articles, their punty-iron not having sufficient strength. The tool M was used to carry flat articles to the annealing ovens. The tool N was used in refining their alkalic salts, and served to take off the salt as crystallized in course of its manufacture.
The workmen of the present day will see that, as before remarked, many tools are not altered in form, while in others there is a decided improvement,—in none more than in the tool E. Tool D is exactly like those now in use; but many new tools have been introduced since that period, rendering most of the old tools useless. Improvements in the form of glass-furnaces, construction of the glass-house, tools, &c., have been very gradual,—more so, in fact, than in almost any other art, when we consider that a period of about four hundred years has elapsed since the furnaces, tools, &c., herein referred to, were in use, and that they remained very much the same until the present century. It is indeed no undue arrogance of claim to say that the very many improvements in furnaces, working machinery, tools, &c. (such as enable the manufacturer here to melt with the same fuel double the quantity of glass that can at present be done in the European furnaces,) are entirely owing to the progress of the art in this country. By the perfection of our machines double the product can be obtained; and although the glass maker is paid at least three times the wages usually paid in Germany or France, we can, in all the articles where the value of the materials predominates, compete successfully with importers of foreign glass; but when the labor on glass constitutes its chief value, then glass can be imported cheaper than it can be manufactured in this country. Essentially, however, we may say, in the realm of art as in that of civilization and progress,—
"Westward the star of empire takes its way."
PRESSED GLASS.
This important branch of glass-making demands more than a passing notice. Although it is commonly believed here that the invention originated in this country, the claim cannot be fully sustained. Fifty years back the writer imported from Holland salts made by being pressed in metallic moulds, and from England glass candlesticks and table centre-bowls, plain, with pressed square feet, rudely made, somewhat after the present mode of moulding glass. From 1814 to 1838, no improvement was made in Europe in this process, which was confined to common salts and square feet.
America can claim the credit of great improvements in the needful machinery which has advanced the art to its present perfection. More than three quarters of the weekly melt is now worked up into pressed glass, and it is estimated that upwards of two million dollars has been expended in the moulds and machines now used in this particular branch of glass-making. This leaves Europe far behind us in this respect. With us there is active competition for excellence. It is, however, conceded that James B. Lyon & Co., of Pittsburg, stand first. To such a degree of delicacy and fineness have they carried their manufacture, that only experts in the trade can distinguish between their straw stem wines, and other light and beautiful articles made in moulds, and those blown by the most skilled workmen. When we consider the difference in the cost between pressed and blown ware, this rivalry in beauty of the former with the latter becomes all the more important to the public, as it cheapens one of the staple necessaries of civilized life.
Great credit therefore is due this firm for their success in overcoming difficulties well understood by glass-makers, and doing away with the prejudice of the skilled blowers, who naturally were not inclined to put the new and more mechanical process of manufacturing glass on a par with the handicraft of the old. Lyon & Co. also excel all other American firms in large ware for table services, as well as in the more delicate objects of use.
In speaking of the improvements in glass-making in America, we must not overlook what has been done by the New England Glass Company.
Convinced of the importance of scientific skill in their business, they secured some years ago the services of Mr. Leighton and his three sons, at a liberal compensation. Besides possessing the best practical knowledge, they had also artistic taste, which enabled them to give elegant finish to their workmanship, and to introduce new and more beautiful patterns into it.
They did not neglect, however, the more homely but useful articles; but executed orders for large and heavy objects for druggists' and chemical wares and philosophical apparatus, so satisfactorily as to secure a monopoly in them. Their richly cut, gilded, colored, and ornamental glass is considered equal to European work.