by the patient Hindoo, whose loom consists of little else than a few sticks of bamboo, rudely fastened together, and fixed to the branches of some leafless tree. -Saturday Magazine. Kath. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH. If my sight fail not, You should be lord ambassador from the emperor, Cap. Madam, the same, your servant. Kath. O my lord, But I pray you, The times and titles now are altered strangely Noble lady First, mine own service to your grace; the next Who grieves much for your weakness, and by me And heartily entreats you take good comfort. Kath. O my good lord, that comfort comes too late; 'Tis like a pardon after execution: That gentle physic, given in time, had cur'd me; Cap. Madam, in good health. Kath. So may he ever do! and ever flourish When I shall dwell with worms, and my poor name Banish'd the kingdom! Patience, is that letter, I caus'd you write, yet sent away? Patience. No, Madam. (Giving it to Katherine.) Kath. Sir, I most humbly pray you to deliver This to my lord, the king, Cap. Most willing, Madam. Kath. In which I have commended to his goodness, The model of our chaste loves, his young daughter,— The dews of heaven fall thick in blessings on her!— By that you love the dearest in this world, Cap. Kath. I thank you, honest lord. Remember me Say, his long trouble now is passing Out of this world; tell him, in death I bless'd him, Call in more women,-When I am dead, good wench, THE HISTORY OF THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS. PART I. THE invention, or rather the discovery of glass, is said to have been accidental. The account given of the occurrence is, that a merchant vessel, laden with saltpetre, having been driven on shore on the coast of Palestine, the crew placed the kettles, in which they had cooked their victuals, on some lumps of their cargo, which, being melted by the action of the fire, combined with the sand on the beach, and formed a kind of glass. The art of rendering glass transparent was not discovered till several centuries later. To whom we are iindebted for this valuable discovery is uncertain; but we find it is recorded in history, that Nero, the despotic Roman Emperor, paid a sum of money, nearly equal to -£50,000 sterling, for "two small cups of transparent .glass." Amongst the ancient ruined cities of Egypt, articles made from glass have been found; thus the eras which beheld the erection of the pyramids, may also have witnessed the less astonishing but more useful operations of glass-making. The manufacturers of ancient Tyre were not ignorant of this beautiful substance, which they probably distributed to distant regions of the world, by their widely-extended commerce. Even amongst the ancient Chinese we find traces of this art, and a diminutive vase, of a bluish-white colour, made from this ancient Chinese glass, may be seen in the British Museum. It is well known that the Romans possessed glass vessels, as urns of this substance have been found in Herculaneum, and some of these are deposited amongst the antiquities of the Museum. The beautiful Portland Vase is formed of dark blue glass, and is supposed to have been the work of an ancient Greek artist, who must have been versed in the manufacture of the substance from which the vase is formed. At the beginning of the Christian era, the art of glassmaking appears to have made considerable progress, and, at the end of the 3rd century, we find a notice or its being used, in some cases, for the purpose of glazing windows. The invention advanced rapidly in Italy, and afterwards in France; but the first account we have of the use of window glass in England is in the year 674, when the Abbot Benedict Biscop sent over for foreign artists to glaze the windows of the church and monastery of Wearmouth, in Durham; yet, although thus early known, it was not employed for this purpose in private houses, or even in churches and cathedrals, in this country, till the end of the 10th century. Venice ranked this manufacture amongst the sources of her wealth, and guarded the secrets of the process with as much jealousy as she watched the actions of her dukes. Some remains of this art are still preserved in Muráno, a town about a mile north of Venice. In England some large manufactories were fixed in London, (at Crutched Friars and the Strand,) about the middle of the 16th century. How little the art had been previ ously practised in this country, may be understood from the high value and rarity of glass windows in English houses. Few circumstances illustrate this more strongly than the custom of removing such windows from the casements, and packing the frames in boxes, whenever the family removed from one habitation to another, as from a country to a town residence. But, if glass was rare and costly in the time of Elizabeth, the tastes of the people were not such as to encourage a great increase of the production from the few manufacturers. This slow advance of the art did not solely arise from the absence of patronage on the part of the government, for James I. gave a patent for the manufacture to Sir Robert Mansell; and the Duke of Buckingham, introducing skilful workmen from Venice in 1670, established a manufactory at Lambeth, where may still be seen the furnaces of the glasshouses in operation. The existing manufactories are not the direct successors of those supported by the duke, who was too deeply involved in political intrigue at that time, to give much attention to the useful arts: his works at Lambeth were, therefore, neglected, and, after a short period, wholly abandoned. Formerly every description of flat glass had been blown, in the manner we shall presently explain; but in 1688, a very great improvement was made by one Abraham Theveuart, who resorted to the plan of casting plates of glass for looking-glasses and other purposes. A large manufactory was established at St. Gobin, in the department of the Aisne, in France, which is still deemed one of the most considerable in Europe. The manufacture continued to advance, though slowly, and glass became a taxable article in the time of William III.; whilst, in the Reign of George II., the raw materials were made subject to a higher excise duty. The first large manufactory was established at Ravenhead, near St. Helen's, in Lancashire, where the "Governor and Company of the British Cast Plateglass Manufacturers," gave a decided impulse to the production of the material in Britain. This society obtained a royal charter, and the sanction of Parliament for its operations in 1773. The works covered about twenty acres of ground, and nearly 300 persons were constantly employed there on this manufacture. Thus, at the very period when Hargreaves and Arkwright were developing the capabilities of cotton machines in one part of Lancashire, the capital of this company was, in another part of the same county, giving the necessary stimulus to the production of glass. PART II. Glass in general consists of two bodies united by the agency of a third; these two being sand, and some alkaline substance; and the uniting matter, or the flux, is usually lime. Suppose a quantity of flinty sand is mingled with soda or potash; these will not be fused without the aid of a flux, which effects that singular union between the two substances, from which another, so totally distinct from each, arises. Glass, then, consists essentially of silex (the substance of which flint is formed), and some of the various kinds of alkali, as pearl-ash, potash, kelp, &c. The use of the alkali is to cause the flint to melt when in the furnace. |