FIG. 1.
The ingredients to be made into glass (of whatever kind it may be) are thoroughly mixed together and thrown a little at a time into large crucibles or melting-pots placed in a circle (A A, [fig. 1]) in a furnace resting on buttresses (B B, [fig. 1]), and heated to whiteness by means of a fire in the centre, C, blown by a blowing machine, the tube of which is seen at D. This furnace is shown in perspective in [fig. 2]. The ingredients melt and sink down into a clear fluid, throwing up a scum, which is removed from time to time. This clear glass in the fused state is now kept at a white heat till all air-bubbles have disappeared; the heat is then lowered to a bright redness, when the glass assumes a consistence and ductility suitable to the purposes of the glass blower.
FIG. 2.
Artificial gems are all but varieties of glass. What is called “paste,” “French diamonds,” &c., are glasses of peculiar brilliancy, well cut and polished. Garnets, emeralds, and other precious stones are imitated by coloring the “paste” with various substances, chiefly metallic oxides, as oxide of cobalt, which produces a blue color, oxide of copper a red, and oxide of chromium a green color, &c.
Glass is used for a variety of purposes besides the one great purpose of admitting light to houses while air and damp are excluded. It furnishes an immense variety of beautiful and useful articles in the form of drinking-vessels, vases, chandeliers, &c., and to the chemist and manufacturer generally, it is invaluable, for vessels of glass thoroughly resist the action of all acids (with the exception of the hydrofluoric) and nearly every other substance. It stands a considerable heat, and if made equal in substance and rather thin, will not easily crack by sudden alterations of temperature. Without glass, microscopes, telescopes, cameras, barometers and thermometers—upon which some of our best and most useful knowledge and some very beautiful results of chemical action depend—could hardly have been constructed.
SODA-WATER.
Soda-water was formerly prepared by the ordinary chemist, but since it has become so general a beverage has been made a separate branch of chemical manufacture. Soda-water consists of a very weak solution of carbonate of soda, holding a large quantity of carbonic acid in solution, for water has the property of absorbing a certain quantity of carbonic acid, and this quantity is increased in proportion to the pressure exerted on the water. This pressure is secured in the first place by machinery, and afterwards maintained by the bottle being closely corked and the cork fastened in by means of wire.