Lenox Glass Co. making Cryolite glass for Philadelphia concern

Lenox Glass Works.

PLEASANT SOCIAL GATHERINGS — THE GLASS

WORKS — CRYOLITE — GREAT CONTEMPLATED

ENLARGEMENT OF THE CAPITAL AND WORKS.

It is with unusual pleasure that we record the meetings of capitalists and manufacturers, the last week, looking to the extension of the already very costly and successful Glass Works, at the neighboring village of Lenox Furnace. But before speaking of these meet­ings and the results anticipated from them, it may be well to describe what has already been accomplished.

In the year 1853, works were begun at "The Furnace” Village for the manufacture of Cylinder Glass from the sand of "the old Balantyne Red," near Lake Ashley, on the summit of Washington mountain. This bed had been used for the works at Chester during the war of 1812, but then these were ruined by the great influx of foreign glass after the peace, it had been abandoned until re-opened for the use of the Lenox works, where it has been found the best possible material for their purpose. The Cylinder Glass Works proved not a very great success; and, after a while, under the direction of J. N. Richmond. Esq., they were re-modelled for the manufacture of un­polished Plate Glass, for use as translucent flooring, roofs, door-panels and the like purposes; among which was that of billiard tables in the South, where the extreme heat warped the marble. The demand for the glass in this rough state was great; but the proprietors were zealous and unremitting in their efforts to devise machinery for polishing the plates, which had elsewhere been accomplished by the labor of a multitude of hands, leaving our manufacturers utterly unable to compete with those who had at command the cheap labor of Europe. The use of machinery for this purpose had long been declared impracticable, and the first attempts in that direction at Lenox were rude, and — although they often seem­ed upon the point of success, and the general principles of the inventions were those which govern the machinery which now performs its work with an invariable precision unattaina­ble by hand work, — the results were discour­aging. The efforts were, however, persistently maintained under Andrew T. Servin. Esq., one of the chief proprietors, who had assum­ed the personal superntendence of the works, until perfection seems at last to have been obtained.

The manufacture of Cylinder Glass was early last year resumed by the Lenox Crystal Company — which is composed generally of the same corporators as the Plate Company — so that, practically under the same manage­ment, the rough and polished Plate and the Cylinder are made in large quantities; to which has recently been added the Cryolite, to which special attention has this week been directed.

There are two buildings for the Plate works, one of them of corrugated iron, 200 feet long and 80 broad, containing ten annealing ovens; and one of wood 125 by 80 feet, with eight ovens. These ovens are fed by a furnace of twelve pots, constructed under a patent, which burns gas, instead of wood or coal as in the common patterns; thus securing greater economy of fuel and greater uniformity of heat, with perfect facility in regulating it at greater or less intensity in different parts of the furnace, as inspection of the pots may indicate. The Company justly congratulate themselves on these advantages.

The Plates are made by pouring the liquid glass, from pots lifted by a crane, upon an immense smooth bed of iron, and passing a heavy roller over the molten mass, which be­ing left to cool has a smooth upper surface, while that next the stone is dappled, as may be seen in the rough plates used for windows.

Moulding beds of iron were first used at this Furnace when under Mr. Richmond’s di­rection. and were found equally good with those of copper which had in Europe been considered the only proper material.

The plates having been properly annealed, those intended for polishing are removed to the Polishing Mill, a handsome brick building two stories and a half high with basement, and one hundred feet long by sixty wide.

In the first story the plates are reduced to an even surface by grinding under revolving tablets of iron, triturated with sand. In the second story are two sets of polish­ing machinery, each consisting of three dis­tinct machines, not differing from each other in general appearance. The plates arc passed from one to the other of these through the three; being covered in each with polishing powders, of different granulation and composi­tions — some of the latter being secrets known only to the manufacturer — kept constantly wet. Upon each machine the plate moves upon traimways slowly and uniformly backwards and forwards under three clusters of rapidly revolving buffers, so that every part is subjected to equal trituration.

The result is polished Plate Glass which the best critics among importing merchants declare themselves unable to distinguish from the best manufacture of Europe.

Thus has the introduction of this manufac­ture among a quick-witted and persevering Yankee population, resulted in inventions which had baffled the ingenuity of ages in Europe; and which must produce a revolution in the Plate Glass trade of the world.

The building of the Cylinder Glass Compa­ny is 200 by 50 feet in size and has an eight pot furnace. The annealing is performed here in portable ovens which are considered a great improvement upon the old method. In order to understand this, it may be well to recapit­ulate the processes of the manufacture. The chief constituent of glass is silex, in the form of granular quartz, disintegrated naturally, as in this country, or artificially as sometimes in Europe, to a sand as fine as may be. This is melted in a furnace under intense heat, with a portion of lime, soda, or other alkaline salts and arsenic, as fluxes and to neutralize the ingredient which would otherwise, sooner or later, give an iridiscent [sic] irridescent appearance to the pro­duct. Some combustible substance is neces­sary to give the prismatic hues, admired in cut glass ware, and red lead is added to obtain them in greater intensity. In plate and cylinder glass, on the contrary, the utmost trans­parency is desired, and, in addition to the substances already named, the Lenox Company claim to have a secret processor ingredient which will prevent the prismatic colors, or glass rust, from appearing after any length of of use. A most valuable consideration.

But to return: up to this point the making of plate and cylinder glass is similar in principle, although in furnaces and pots of various construction are employed. Now in the manufacture of the cylinder glass the workman dips his hollow iron tube into the molten mass, and, taking out a portion, forms it by blowing with the mouth and manipulation with his hands into a hollow cylinder some three feet long, open entirely at one end, rounded and nearly closed at the other. The rounded end of this is now cut off with a hot iron, and a slit is made lengthwise through the cylinder: It is then removed to the annealing room and subjected to intense heat in an oven, until it falls open flat upon the hearth. From this it is dragged onto a moveable bed where, still subjected to a heat which almost liquifies it, it is further smoothed and flattened by a block of bass wood which is drawn on over it with a long iron handle. The moveable bed is then withdrawn and the plates of glass, as soon as sufficiently hardened, are placed up­ right, fifteen or twenty together, separated by iron racks, in a portable annealing kiln, resembling a small car, which is then closed hermetically and drawn to a convenient place, where the contents are suffered to cool natu­rally. This is the process of annealing, upon the proper care of which the strength of the glass and its freedom from liability to crack very much depends.

Thus much of the Cylinder and Plate Glass, in the manufacture of which the Lenox Furnace Companies have acquired wealth and reputation. But recently a new and unique man­ufacture has attracted the attention of the managing proprietors, who, after sufficient ex­periment and investigation, last week invited the attention to it, as well as to their works l:genrally [sic] generally, of a party of capitalists and other gentlemen.

This manufacture is named CRYOLITE, from the mineral which gives it its peculiar charac­ter, and which is described as “a fluid of sodium and aluminum, found only in Greenland; cold, pale greyish white, snow white, and yellowish brown. Lustre vitreous." The name is derived from the Greek Kryos, ice, and lithos, a stone; the purer varieties resembling some forms of ice.

The only mines of the mineral known are as has been said, in Greenland, and they leased for a long term to a Philadelphia Company, who propose to that at Lenox Furnace an arrangement for the manufacture of a ware called Cryolite, which is composed one-third of the mineral so named and two-thirds of the silicious sand used in the glass manufacture. The Cryolite of course furnishing all the alkaline salts required, and the arsenic being unnecessary, as the manufactured Cryolite is opaque, nothing is required more, except a little lime as a flux. The product combines the best qualities of marble, porcelain and glass; having a strength — or capability of sustaining weight — greater than that of the best marble, a susceptibility to beautiful col­oring and a facility of moulding equal to those of glass or porcelain. and a peculiar lustre not easily described. It is adapted to a great variety of elegant and useful purposes; and we may, before many years, see, standing upon a floor of Cryolite equalling the rarest Mosaic, a feast served upon a Cryolite table rivalling the choicest marbles of Italy, in Cryolite wares not inferior to the Porcelain of Sevres or the Glass of Bohemia, — and all made within a few-miles of Pittsfield. All this was promised by the exhibition last Thursday at Lenox Furnace.

In the works described, the Plate Glass Company have invested a capital of $200,000, and the Crystal (Cylinder) Company $100,000 — the chief corporators being A. T. Servin, Robert G. Averill and Geo. O. Peek of Len­ox, and D. S. Schenck & Sons, the noted New York importers.

In order to enable the companies to carry out their plans of enlargement, as they can and should be carried out, it is needful to double this capital of $300,000; and it would be best to more than treble it. A million of dollars could be employed in the business with far greater comparative profit than $300,00 now are. 500 operators could he more profitably employed than is the present force of 100.

In order to exhibit the works as they now are, and to show in what respect they can be enlarged, with increased capital, many gentle­men of wealth and influence were invited to visit the Furnace last Thursday, and nearly a hundred responded to the invitation — among them Hon. William K. Dodge of New-York and Ex-Speaker Galusha A. Grow of Penn­sylvania, who are largely interested in the manufacture of Cryolite; Gen. J. S. Rathbone of Albany; Col. Richard Lathers and Allen Melvill, Esq. of New-York and Pittsfield, Rev. Dr. Todd, Col. Robert Pomeroy, Hon. Thomas Colt, Theodore Pomeroy, P. Allen, Edwin Clapp. W. M. Root, Jabez L. Peck, Thaddeus Clapp, F. W. Hinsdale and Nathan G; Brown of Pittsfield; Maj. Frank Morgan of Palmer; J. Heading of Springfield; John H. Heading of Springfield; John H. Coffing of Gt. Barrington; Maj. C. M. Owen and D. R. Williams, President of the Housatonic Bank, Stockbridge; H. Garfield, President of the Lee Bank ; Hon. Wm. C. Plunkett, Wm. S. Blackinton and W. W. Free­man of Adams; Thos. G. Carson and Byron Weston of Dalton; Henry W. Taft, Geo. J. Tucker and R. Goodman of Lenox; Capt. E. R. Moodie, of the Cunard steamer Cuba; High Sheriff Graham A. Root; and Judges Bishop, Rockwell, Colt and Morton.

While inspecting the glass and machinery in the Polishing Room, Sheriff Root called the meeting to order, and Mr. Servin of the Glass Works made a statement of the busi­ness and its prospects for the future. Hon. Wm. E. Dodge then addressed the meeting. He believed there were great facilities here for carrying on the Glass and Cryolite business, and that with enlarged capital it would he a great financial success; and it was understood he was ready to invest largely in it. General Rathbone followed expressing his readiness to invest, and proposing a committee to examine and report this week. Gen. Rathbone, J. T. Ames of Chicopee, Thos. Colt, D. R. Williams and Harrison Garfield were appointed a Committee, and they are holding a meeting to-day (Wednesday) at Lenox Furnace. Mr. Grow made a lengthened statement upon Cryolite. D. S. Schenck of New-York, a great importer of glass, followed, and the Rev. Dr. Todd closed the discussion by an eloquent eu­logy upon the "brain of New-England."

A sumptuous lunch was provided by the Proprietors of the works, and was served up­on a huge plate of snow-white Cryolite.

The next day, Friday, Messrs. Dodge and Grow, by invitation of Col. Richard Lathers, met a party of some fifty gentlemen at his elegant villa in this town — Abby Lodge where, after enjoying a pleasant hour in ad­miration of the noble scenery viewed from the house, and in examining the rich works of art and virtu collected by Col. Lathers, the com­pany partook of a sumptuous collation, enli­vened by spirited and witty speeches from the host, Messrs. Dodge and Grow, Rev. Dr. Todd, Judge Colt and Hon. Thomas-Colt.

Two days of more genial pleasure we have rarely enjoyed, and we doubt not their mem­ory will be preserved by all who participated in the entertainments we have attempted to describe.