CHAPTER XVIII

GLASS WEAR

Glass ware is now no longer for ornament alone, but for cooking uses as well.

The only way to tell if you have a good piece of glass or not is to compare it to other pieces for color and sound. If it sounds clear and bell-like, it is pretty sure to be a good bit of glass. But don’t strike it if it happens to be in a groove or it will, of course, shatter it, as the pieces will have no room to vibrate and will break the bounds.

ANNEALING

Annealing is the process brought to such a perfection to-day that glass can be made almost shell proof. In fact glass for automobile windows was and is being made that when it is struck will not shatter but will simply crack or craze. This process is one of careful heating and cooling many times repeated. It makes the glass more elastic so that the

## particles are in more of a state of equilibrium and can be struck

without danger of breaking.

MANUFACTURE

The basis of all glass is soda, aluminum or oxide of lead in combination with silica of sand. Doesn’t this sound hiphalutin? Well, it isn’t. Then this is heated to something like 1200 degrees Fahrenheit and when in molten form is blown with air incorporators into the requisite shapes. You no doubt have seen glass blown at bazaars or fairs. But of course this blowing in the factory is done with huge blowers. The best glass is dependent on its base as it is combined with lead. This combination is the fine glass called flint glass. And it is from flint glass which has the luster that the cut and engraved glass is made.

COLOR

The color in glass is given to it by the use of metal oxides, blue is derived from copper oxide, yellow from iron oxide, the stunning reds from gold. Don’t these facts, make glass more interesting to you?

Rock crystal is the fashion now and probably will persist. But don’t, for goodness’ sake, be untechnical enough to say anything but polished engraved glass, when you speak of it! The old time glass with intersecting canyons cut in it which left tell tale gouges in one’s fingers, is dead and if you use it you are dead too! Now be it remembered, it’s polished engraved alias rock crystal.

HOW IT DIFFERS FROM CUT GLASS

Cut glass is decorated with geometric lines by means of steel wheels and carborundum used for the cutting. Then these lines are smoothed with stone wheels and given a high polish. Some manufacturers press in the design by putting the glass into moulds in its moulten state, but this makes the cheaper glass commonly called Pressed to imitate the cut variety. Then the glass is cooled and the effects are often good enough to fool the ordinary person. Cut glass can always be distinguished from the pressed by feeling the inside of the cutting, where it is the deepest, and if there is a slight lump corresponding to the cutting it is surely cut and not pressed.

Engraved glass is thinner than the cut glass very often and is decorated by copper wheels fed with emery and oil, which does not cut so deep. The skill of the designer and workman are the only limits to the beauty of this glass. This kind of decoration is left in the satin gray finish with the exception of the polishing out of the centers of the flowers, and other figures according to the taste of the engraver. This gives the contrasts in gray and clear glass which give the tonal value to the glass. And when the engraving is sunk deeply and then polished, it is called rock crystal because it has the peculiar colorless mat-finish brilliancy of the natural rock crystal.

COLORED GLASS

What about colored glass? There is much of it about, some of it the frank imitation of the old stuff and some of it the real old thing. It is very popular. The reason it isn’t epidemic is because one has to have all the fixings with it to use it well and to be _au fait_. Unless one has center pieces and side dishes and flowers and, to go even to extremes, old chairs and antique refectory tables, colored glass gives a vagrant restless spotty cast to the table! You know what it means to have everything _en rapport_, in the way of expenses and fussing these days! ... to the majority of people anyway. And so when colored glass is used, even if one has all the articles necessary, real vision must be employed and discrimination exercised in massing everything to give the ease and grace (the basis of beauty) necessary.

One of the most interesting things about glass to-day is that a firm in America has been taking the _Grand Prix_ and the Gold Medal in a competition with the glassmakers of the world in Paris! And some of the best glass is made in little old America! Talk about American prowess! And too, because the foreign markets have not been able to make the rather staple enamel and gold glass, America has again stepped in, and has been engaged in making this sort of glass too, and making it well.

Some very old and exclusive dealers say colored glass is not in vogue because these firms have in their clientele very selected people who probably do not buy it as they have inherited all they need. Furthermore, many of their clients don’t want to be bothered with it. But from the way colored glass has been selling in some places it is certainly safe to say it is very popular. Yet on the other hand many dealers are afraid to stock up heavily with it because they fear a slump. At any rate, the manufacturers can hardly keep up with the demand for their excellent reproductions of the old Scotch, English, Irish and Venetian glass. But many hostesses like it because it takes such taste and skill to assemble a table when it is used.

COOKING GLASS

No other utensils on the market combine as these do, beauty, durability, economy and cleanliness even if the initial cost is more. You see they save fuel, because they cook food more rapidly, they save the cook’s time and the waitress’s time because they save the cooking time, and because they are easy to clean, collecting no burn to be forced off and no food to be laboriously scraped away. Besides all this, the food can be served directly from the stove without putting it into another dish for the table. This saves more time and insures hot food. It doesn’t crack in the oven, it comes in many styles--it is not inexpensive but it is worth the outlay.

PLATE-GLASS

Of late, plate-glass has been taking an important part in the household.

This glass differs from other glass in the way it is made. In short it is spread over iron tables in a molten state and cut and trimmed to measure. It is made more carefully than other flat glass and of the finest material. It is, of course, very carefully annealed to make it as soft and as little brittle as possible.

For the tops of bureaus, dressing tables, desks, shelves, medicine cabinets, etc., it has no equal. It is easy to clean and protects what is under it. Many are using it now for the tops of dining tables and sideboards and serving tables. This is a good way to protect the table and save laundry as beautiful linens shine through the glass and yet do not soil so readily. The same can be said of the glassed bureau scarf and the dressing table where so much may be spilled.

Some people who do their own work like plate-glass for the kitchen table. As yet we feel that the brittleness of plate-glass makes the kitchen table a little too temporary, yet while it lasts it is a comfort for pastry work as well as for anything else.

For the motor it reduces danger in driving, and looks better. For the house doors and windows it adds 90 per cent. to the elegance of the lay-out.

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