It may be safely asserted that no department of art has, from its
earliest period, attracted so much attention and investigation, none
involved so extensive a range of inquiry, or been productive of more
ingenious, interesting, and beautiful results, than the manufacture of
glass.
The question of the origin of glass goes back to the remotest
antiquity, and is involved in almost entire obscurity. All that modern
writers on the subject are enabled to do, is to glean hints and
indistinct statements in reference to the subject, from the very brief
and unsatisfactory accounts of the ancients. These, however, throw but
a feeble light upon the precise point of the origin of the manufacture;
and little is proved beyond the fact of its great antiquity.
That the subject held a very prominent place in the technological
literature of the ancients is clearly proved; Pliny, Theophrastus,
Strabo, Petronius Arbiter, Berzelias, Neri, Merrit, Runket, and others,
referring constantly to it. The writings of all these demonstrate the
deep interest existing upon the subject at their various times, but
still fail to present us with any connected or detailed account of the
rise and progress of the art.
When it is considered that the elements involved in the manufacture of
glass are derived from the earth,--not one of its components being in
itself transparent, but earthy, opaque, and apparently incapable of
being transmuted into a transparent and brilliant substance,--when it
is considered that from these a material is produced almost rivalling
the diamond in lustre and refractive power, and sometimes so closely
resembling the richest gems as to detract from the value of the
costliest; can it be wonderful that in the earliest ages the art was
invested with a mysterious interest attaching to no other mechanical
department?
From the earliest periods, up to the eighteenth century, the art, from
the peculiar knowledge and skill involved, could only minister to the
wants or pleasures of the luxurious rich. The rarity of the material
rendered the articles greatly valuable, as tasteful ornaments of dress
or furniture; indeed, it is well known that the glass of Venice, at one
period, was as highly valued as is the plate of the present day; and
the passion for possessing specimens, promised in England, at least, to
excite a spirit of speculation fully rivalling that exhibited in the
tulip mania, so ridiculous, as well as ruinous, in Holland.
It has been reserved for the present age, however, to render the art of
glass-making tributary to the comfort of man,--to the improvement of
science,--and by its moderate cost to enable the poorest and humblest
to introduce the light and warmth of the sun within, while excluding
the storms and chilly blasts; to decorate his table with the useful,
and minister to his taste, at a cost barely more than that of one of
his ordinary days' labor. That which once was prized and displayed as
the treasure and inheritance of the wealthy, and which, with sacred
carefulness, was handed down as of precious value, may now be found in
the humblest dwellings, and is procured at a charge which makes the
account of the former costliness of glass to partake almost of the
character of the fabulous and visionary.
That the art of glass manufacture is destined to greater progress and
higher triumphs cannot for a moment be doubted; and the time will
arrive when, from increased purity of materials and progressive
chemical development, the present position of the art will fall
comparatively into the shade. It is no undue stretch of the imagination
to conceive that lenses shall be perfected whose purity will enable the
astronomer to penetrate the remotest region of space; new worlds may
perhaps be revealed, realizing all that the "moon hoax" promised--
"The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky
And spangled heavens"----
be read as a book, and man perhaps recognize man in other worlds than
his own. It may be that in its triumphs it is destined to concentrate
the rays of the sunlight, and make the eye to pierce into the secrets
and deep places of the sea,
"Full many a fathom deep."
Man may be enabled to read the wonders and the hidden works of the
Almighty; it may be, that the power of the traditional lens of
Archimedes upon the fleet of Marcellus shall be realized, in the
absorbing and igniting, and perhaps useful power of some feature of its
progress; and in its sphere, the art become fruitful in practical
results, rivalling the highest attainments in the department of
scientific progress. It is no visionary speculation to believe, that,
by the aid of machinery, it may be readily rolled into sheets, as is
iron or lead now in use. It will minister more and more to the
necessities and comfort of mankind, and contribute largely to the many
and various manufacturing purposes of the age. That its practical
adaptations are not already known or exhausted, cannot be doubted; and
its applicability, in some cheaper form, for vessels of large size and
certain shape, and (strange as it may seem) for tessellated and ordinary
flooring and pavements, are among the results which we think yet to be
demonstrated in its progress.