The Year in Review in the World of Glass Technology

JSGT_1923_V07_T132_T141

There is usually but cold comfort to be obtained by looking back on the doings of a year which, on the whole, was disappointing so far as the general position of the glass industry is concerned. Nevertheless, the clearer view which a retrospect affords is often useful in directing a wise course for the future. Most manufacturers have some idea of the state of the trade in our own country. The hopes that were entertained at the beginning of the year were scarcely fulfilled. The one section that can be said to have done satisfactorily is that devoted to making pressed glassware. At the other end of the scale, optical glass-makers and the bottle industry have both been down in the dumps, and it is unfortunate that the bottle branch, which more than any other has reorganised its methods and spent large sums on new equipment, should have to wait still longer to see the fruit of its efforts. On the whole, the condition of the industry was a shade better than that in the previous year (1921). This conclusion is not only derived from the writer's general acquaintance with the industry, but also from the figures for exports and imports in 1921 and 1922.

W. E. S. Turner