The west shore., March 21, 1891, Page 192, Image 10

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THE WEST SHORE.
THAT LAMP CHIMNEY.
lie carelul not to break that lamp chimney ! It doesn't cost much, you
say? Let us see. That chimney, which you are handling so carelessly cost
thousands of dollars in brain and travel and machinery and strong men's
strength, and the freightage of gallant ships. You don't see then, how we can
buy it for ten cents? Well there are many, many thousands of them being
made every day, so the manufacturer divides up the expense and lets us have
them cheap. But even one could never have been made without that enor
mous expense.
Did you ever see one made ? I have. I went the other day to a factory
where they turn out 1,700 gross each week. Figure that out, can you! It
comes some where near a million a month, does it not?
I suppose that you have some sort of a dim notion as to the mixture of
which glass is made. Sand and soda, you say, and you recall the story of its
discovery by some Phoenician Robinson Crusoes, who set their cooking ves
sels on blocks of rock soda, on the sand, and whose (ire fused together the
sand and soda forming a crude glass.
But I fear that that glass would hardly satisfy your fancy for a lamp
chimney. You would find fault with it as having too deep a tint of bluish
green and losing its lustre as time went on. It might be better to substitute
lime for soda, and still better to use both of them with the sand. Indeed, for
a vrry first class lamp chimney, such as you and I need to brighten up our
wits and enliven the family circle, we want several additions to the first crude
formula of " sand and soda." You want, do you not, a clear, smooth glass,
tougTi enough lo bear your heedless handling and all sudden changes of tem
perature ?
Then this is our combination : First nitre (or salt-petre) which we will
bilng from Chili, in South America, where it is found in great quantities, en
crusted iiKin the surface of the ground t next pearl-ash or potash, from
Holland, where it is obtained from the refuse left after making sugar from
beets 1 the soda-ash is from England and is produced from rock salt which is
mined in Great Britain. These first three ingredients are all varieties of the
soda element, which is what is needed to fuse with the sand, in order to make
glass of any description. Some of them add beauty of color, and some brill
iancy. It U a great secret of the trade lo get the proportions exactly right.
Then comes the Siind. The very best is found near Berlin, Germany, where
there is a great tract of sand, thirty miles square. The lead is truly Ameri
can (to its praise be it said) and is mined in Missouri. It is brought to the
factory in great solid bars, called " pigs." There it is subjected to a current
, of heated air, which oxidizes it, changing it into red lead or oxide of lead. It
is curious that loo pounds of pig lead make I lo pounds of this oxide. So be
careful how you say " Light as air," for you see that the air it is which adds the
extra ten pounds of oxygen to the lead. This red lead increases the lustre of
the glass. To all this mixture, which you will hear the workmen call " frit," ask
them to add a certain amount of broken glass, for here we will "gather up the
fragments that nothing be lost." Have you learned, by the way, that (his
scri)ture rule is the rule of the business world ? It is growing to be so more
and more, Now our men will load up great carts, or barrows, of this frit and
transport them to the fire pots. These great pots, or crucibles, of clay are
placed in the furnace, 0xisite each pot is a door in the side of the furnace.
Through this the pot is filW with the frit, the furnace is closed, and the glass
is kit to luse in the intense heat until it is ready to work. Then the door is
oH-nrd and a man comet with his long, hollow blowpipe. He thrusts in one
end and brings out lump of mlhot, molten glass. He blows through the
other end of the pi and the glass e xpandi into a ball He points the pipe
downward and moves it up and down, blowing meanwhile, and the ball length
ens into a ilu much like a chimney. Then he runs across and sets it in a
frame and hurries back with another pipe for another lump of glass. The
sreond man takes it and gently, but swiftly, twirls it as he blows through the
pi. Then a boy lifts the cover of a chimney-shaped mould, into which the
man liyi the mass of mlhot glass on the end of the pi. The cover goes
back in its place and the man blows through the pipe. The glass expands,
filling the mould, and the chimney comes out quite perfect in form, exceit that
it is closed at the top. This man can slu seventy each hour. Now he
thrusts it into a furnace till it is almost melting, and bringing k out, cuts hole
at the top, and with a shaping lathe gives it its form. Now the chimney is cut
free from the blowpipe at the lower end, and the base is heated, shaped and
measured. This base must be accurate or it will not fit, and you know how
the chimney would go wabbling about. You or I would break it the first
time we tried to carry the lamp across the room, and you see by this time it is
altogether too valuable an article to be endangered. Now we have a plain
chimney. But we are ambitious to have a " pearl-top,'' so it is seized in a
clamp and thrust again into a " burning fiery furnace " until the top is melting,
when out it conies and goes into a mould which gives it the pretty flare and
curve of the " pearl-top." Another heating smooths and rounds out all in
equalities. The rough-cut base is scoured a long while on a revolving table
with sand and water. Now you will not cut your fingers on it.
Look at your chimney near the top and see if you can find the name of
the manufacturer etched in small type. If so, and the name reminds you of
a notable play of Shakespeare, you may know that the chimney was made at
the factory where I saw all this grand fun. The man who patented the pro
cess for etching the name studied upon it for a long time. He is by birth a
German, and he found in Germany some such process, but it was clumsy and
slow. That would not do for an Americanized German, and he kept experi
menting and trying until he found just the right way to do it and to do it
quickly. By his process, a girl, with another girl to hand her the pieces and
set them away again, can stamp 20,000 of them in a week. To his concave
stamping block he applies a chemical The chimney is pressed against the
block and comes away bearing the stamp. After this has been burned in the -fire
it is a permanent etching, and the same heating, followed by a slow cool
ing, anneals the glass and prepares it for its tussle with the world.
You may imagine that this is all very hot and exhausting work. It is, in
deed, so. You could not endure it long, and even the workmen who are ac
customed to it have to work with moderation. They do not have as many
hours of labor as in most callings. They begin at six in the morning and
work till ten o'clock. They then stop for luncheon. After that they work till
two o'clock, when they are through for the day.
Emily A. Kellogg.
It would be a good thing to teach children to stand up and be looked at s
to bear with composure the glances, cold, curious, critical, of the human eyes
turned upon them. Instead of this, however, we teach them, by our utter in
difference to the rudeness of it, to stare. Meet a half dozen girls coming
from school with dainty satchels on their arms, and notice how they look at
you from brow to toe. They know the color of your eyes and hair, the shape
of your bonnet, the quality of your gown 1 and all because they look at you
boldly and unwinkingly, without any apology in their manner for the imperti
nence. Where you meet one young girl who behaves very quietly upon the
street and who gives you a shy, modest glance as she passes, you will meet a
dozen who talk anj bugh loudly, wh) saunter, twirl their handkerchiefs, loo't
over th:ir shiulJen, criticise the pusen by, and chew gu;n. By all meani,
be light-hearted and joyous and full of good, rollicking fun j but do be modest
and quiet and womanly upon the street.
A new pair of spec's is what we all need. A friend of mine having her
eyes examined discovered that she needed new spectacles. So the occuhst
put belladonna in her eyes lo enlarge them and took all the necessary accurate
measurements, and a new pair were built on the most approved patterns. She
put them on and found them very bright and clear, but did not at first real
ize how much they helped her. But one night she was coming home from a
call just as the evening stars appeared. She happened to lift her eyes just as
she was crossing a street and she stood still in amazement. Why, the stars
had faints! She had never in all her life before SP lh start a anvlkintr
more than pinheads, in shape perfectly round. She had often wondered whv
people called the five-pointed designs on the American flag stars, but had
never asked. Now she knew.
How many things do you and I see dully and imperfectly? And how
will we ever see them as they are? We need a new pair of spec's, and how
shall we get them?
WHAT HE GOT.
v, children," said the Sundav srhJ irhr . ..n
I ' .""...v., vuil 9UIUCUMC ICII IIIU
hat Joseph's father gave him?" A deep silence reigned over the class.
Perhaps, Tommy Bingo," continued the teacher, ''you can tell me what your
father gets when he goes to the tailors."
14 Yes, sir," said Tommy, triumphantly, "he gets trusted."