Glass of a peculiar quality—that is, non-conductive for heat rays—has been invented by Richard Szigmondy, of Vienna, the statement being that glass a quarter of an inch thick absorbs 87 to 100 per cent. of the heat striking it, in contrast to plate-glass, which absorbs only about 5 per cent.
This glass is designed to insure windows which will keep dwellings warm in winter and cool in summer, especially adapted, too, for skylights, etc., and also for blue-glass spectacles to be used by furnace men.
Remarking upon the invention in question, the Scientific American calls attention to the peculiar conducting power of ordinary glass, which would seem to render Szigmondy's glass an impossibility, in some respects at least.
Thus, standing by a window on which the sun shines, the warmth of the sun is felt, but, on touching the window, it is found to be cold; then if a light of glass be placed between the person and an ordinary open fire, it will screen from the heat, but becomes rapidly heated itself—that is, in the first case it transmitted most of the heat, and in the latter it absorbed.
A SMALL BOY'S NOTION.
The first of March was snowy.
"Humph!" said Jack. "It's going in like a lamb getting sheared. Just look at the wool fly!"