During the recent meeting in Belgium of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers several interesting excursions were made, and by no means the
least interesting was the visit to the glass works of Val St. Lambert.
This is one of the largest glass works in existence, entirely devoted
to the production of domestic articles, such as tumblers, wine glasses,
lamp chimneys, and such like. A good deal of ornamental work is also
turned out, a staff of highly competent artists being employed in
painting glass vases, etc., such as are used for the decoration of
rooms.
The Val St. Lambert works stand on the right bank of the Meuse, in
the commune of Seraing, and about seven and a half miles from Liege.
As the head offices of Cockerill's vast establishment are located in
the old palace of the Bishops of Liege, so the Cristalleries of Val
St. Lambert occupy the site of the Abbey de Rosieres. Up to the year
1192 the site was almost a desert, but about that period the abbey was
founded. In 1202 Hughes de Pierrepont, Bishop of Liege, gave to the
monks a tract of land and woods situated in what was then called the
Champ des Maures, whereon was built the abbey. It prospered and became
powerful. At the end of the last century it was reconstructed, and at
that time were raised the fine buildings now used as a manufactory.
The rebuilding had hardly been finished when the Revolution came, and
with it the expulsion of the monks. It was sold by the nation, and was
used for various manufacturing purposes, until the year 1825, when
it was purchased by MM. Kemlin and Lelievre. There had previously
existed, at Vonêche, near Givet, a glass works carried on by M.
D'Artigues, its owner, aided by M. Kemlin, his nephew, and M. Aug.
Lelievre. This latter gentleman had left the Ecole Polytechnique of
Paris with distinction, and was the son of Mr. Anselme de Lelievre,
Inspector-General of Mines, and a distinguished savant of the last
century. MM. Kemlin and Lelievre both became naturalized Frenchmen.
However, the frontier traced by the Congress of Vienna for the new
territory of Belgium cut Vonêche off from France. The glass works
accordingly lost their only market, cut off from it by a heavy tariff.
M. D'Artigues left the place and went to France, while MM. Kemlin and
Lelievre found in the old Val St. Lambert Abbey what they wanted in
Belgium, and this was the origin of the glass works. Nor would it be
easy to hit on a better site. In the heart of a rich country, on the
borders of a fine river, in the center of a coal basin, and close to
the Marihaye Collieries, well provided with railway accommodation, the
Val St. Lambert glass works possess every advantage, and they have been
proportionately successful.
The establishment is worked by a company known as the Societé Anonyme
des Cristalleries du Val St. Lambert, under the Presidency of M. Jules
Deprez; and the company possess four distinct establishments, namely,
that at Val St. Lambert; one at D'Herbatte, near Namur, founded in
1851; a third in the Rue Barre-Neuvill, at Namur, founded in 1753; and,
lastly, one at Jambes, near the same town, founded in 1850.
We need not trace at length, says _The Engineer_, the history of the
works. It will be enough to say that for a long time they were carried
on with small or no profits; but a great advance was made when, in
1830, coal was first substituted for wood for heating purposes. Further
capital was introduced in 1836, and operations have been carried
on practically without intermission ever since. In 1850 the annual
turn-over was about £60,000. In 1880 the turn-over of the company was
£200,000. To give an idea of the magnitude of the operations carried
on, we may say that no fewer than 120,000 pieces are turned out _every
day_. To pack this there are used 50,000 kilos. of heather, 55,000
kilos. of straw, and 250,000 feet of boards per month. The sand of all
kinds used per year weighs 7,000,000 kilogs., and the weight of the
fire clay 1,500,000 kilogs. The weight of the finished goods sent out
per year exceeds 9,000,000 kilogs. The company employs in all about
3,000 hands, 1,800 of whom are at Val St. Lambert. Much attention is
paid to the welfare of the operatives by the company, and a species
of co-operative store is worked with great success. Many of the hands
have been on the works of the company for fifty years, and the managers
speak in the highest terms of their servants. They know nothing of "St.
Monday." They are laborious, assiduous, intelligent, and attached to
the works and the locality, which they rarely quit. These conditions
are the most favorable possible for the employers, and they are far
too rare in Great Britain. The Val St. Lambert hands, men, women, and
children, work uninterruptedly for eleven hours a day all the week
through, and some of the men even longer. This affords a remarkable
contrast with the hours of labor and customs of our English glass
workers.
We take it for granted that our readers know generally how glass is
made. That a mixture of sand and an alkali is fused into a kind of
pasty mass. The fusion is effected in pots of refractory clay, of which
the general form is something like that shown in the sketch. The mouth
of the pot is shown at A. The pots at Val St. Lambert are of various
sizes; the largest hold about 16 cwt. of glass. The duration of the
pots is very variable; they last sometimes only a few days, at others
several weeks or even months, much depending on the quality of the pot.
The temperature to which they are exposed is not excessively high. The
great thing to be effected in a glass melting furnace is the perfectly
equal distribution of the heat. At Val St. Lambert gas is used,
generated in Siemens or Boetius producers. There are in all twenty
furnaces. They are grouped in threes or fours, in the large buildings,
with high roofs. Formerly the furnaces were square, and held each eight
melting pots, which did not hold more than 250 kilos. of glass. The
modern furnaces each receive from twelve to fourteen melting pots. The
modern melting pots as made by the Battersea Plumbago Crucible Company
do not seem to be known here.
[Illustration]
The peculiarities of the construction of the glass melting furnaces at
Val St. Lambert will be gathered from the annexed sketch. The furnace
is circular, 14 ft. or 15 ft. in diameter, and from the roof, E, to
the floor is about 5 ft. 6 in. high. In the center of the floor is a
cylindrical opening, A, through which rises the mixture of gas and
air, the latter being introduced through four openings, three of which
are shown. Two of the pots are indicated by dotted lines at D D. The
equitable diffusion of the heat is effected in the following way:
Inside the furnace are constructed as many vertical flues as there are
pots. Two of these are shown at G G. They have small openings about 5
in. by 8 in. at the bottom. The course pursued by flame is indicated
by the bent arrows. The flame rising strikes the crown, E, and is
deflected downward and drawn off by the side flues, which deliver into
the second vaulted space, F. In this, in some cases, are annealed the
finished articles of glass. In others is fixed a boiler, steam being
generated by the waste heat. In others there is no opening at the top
of F at H, but there is one at the side instead, through which the
flame is led to raise steam in Belleville tubulous boilers. The steam
is used to drive the engines in the grinderies. Not much power is
required, and it is very easily obtained from the waste heat.
[Illustration: SECTION OF CLASS FURNACE]
The operations of the glass blower have been too often described to
need redescription here. One or two points, however, deserve notice.
One is the large use made of wooden moulds. In these are formed all
kinds of circular articles, such as tumblers and lamp glasses. The
moulds are in halves, and are kept soaked with water to prevent them
from burning. Inside they become lined with charcoal. The glass blower,
getting a knob of glass on the end of his blowing rod, blows a very
thick, small bulb; this he then places on the mould, which is closed by
a very small boy; in but too many cases mere children, seven or eight
years old, are employed. The child holds the two sides of the mould
together while the blower rotates the bulb within, blowing all the
time. The work is turned out very true. Up to a comparatively recent
period the tumbler was cut to the proper depth while hot with a pair
of scissors, but this has been abandoned, and an extremely ingenious
little machine is now used for cutting lamp glasses, tumblers, etc. The
article to be cut is placed vertically on a stand. At the proper height
above the stand is fixed a sharp steel point, and by touching the glass
against this a very small scratch is made. At the same level is fixed
a little mouthpiece through which issues, under pressure, a tiny gas
flame, not thicker than a sheet of note paper. This falls on the glass,
which is turned round by the woman attendant. The glass is heated in
an extremely narrow band all round. The touch of a moistened finger
suffices for the complete separation of the two parts of the glass
round the heated girdle. In fact, this is a very elegant application
to manufacturing purposes of the well known hot wire method of cutting
glass so often tried with indifferent success by the enterprising
amateur.
Glass grinding is carried out on a very large scale at Val St. Lambert
in huge well lighted shops. There are four grinderies at Val St.
Lambert, and one at Herbatte, the total number of which is 800, and
the floor space occupied is no less than 24,000 square feet. The first
steam engine was put down to grind glass in 1836. A great deal of
engraving is done with fluoric acid, the vessel to be engraved being
protected with wax in which the design is etched. Tilghman's sand blast
is also employed, as well as the old copper disk system; flats are
ground on tumblers by automatic machinery.
It would be impossible to do more than give a general idea of the
operations carried on in this vast establishment, every portion of
which was thrown open to the members of the Institution, while numbers
of heads of departments went round and answered every question, and
explained every detail with a frankness and a courtesy beyond praise.
It is impossible to inspect such an establishment as that at Val St.
Lambert without feeling how hard is the battle which manufacturers in
this country have to fight. There, as we have said, are to be found
every advantage of position, and to this is added a body of workmen,
active, sober, industrious, among whom is heard no talk of strikes, and
who are content to work every day and all day long; such men, directed
by heads possessed of no small scientific ability, and re-enforced by
the command of ample capital, cannot fail to make a mark in any market,
and we only speak the truth when we regret that we have not such works
and such men on English soil as there are to be found at Val St.
Lambert.
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