The Future of Glass Melting. Presidential Address

JSGT 1931 V15 T321-T347

 The wizardry which conjures mixtures of crude earthy materials and certain familiar chemical substances into a new body with striking qualities of transparency, brilliancy, form, and colour is the universal cult of all branches of the glass industry here and everywhere. It is true that each branch has its own variations of raw materials, both in quality and proportion, yet all submit to the same process of transmutation. It is also true that the same physical agency, namely, heat energy, is the cause of change although the means by which it is applied may differ from branch to branch and the range of temperature at which it is applied may vary from about 1300° in one section to about 1500° in another; and all branches rely for ability to manipulate the glassy substance on the same property of plasticity throughout the range of temperature where change from liquid to solid state gradually takes place by cooling, but the tools and machines for giving form to the final product exhibit divergences as wide as the products themselves and their manifold uses.

Edward Meigh