UNITED STATES. Prior to the European colo nists the only glass known in America was the `obsidian' volcanic glass. In 1608 some glass makers were among the artisans brought to Jamestown, Va., but the craze for tobacco in terfered with their industry. In 1621 several Italian glass-workers were imported to manu facture beads for the Indians. In 1639 a glass house was erected at Salem, Mass., and William Penn alludes to a Quaker glass-house in 1683. A glass-maker, Jan Smeedes, received an allotment of land on Manhattan Island, and the business which he carried on gave the name `Glass-makers' Street' to the present South William Street of New York. In 1754 a Dutch gentleman, Bamber, built glass-works in Brooklyn, N. Y., and the first bottle blown by him, bearing the name and date, is in the collection of the Historical Society of that borough. Glassborough, N. J., was founded by a colony of German glass-makers, who moved there in 1775. In 1787 the Massachusetts Legis lature gave to a Boston glass company the ex clusive right to make glass in the State for fifteen years. This is said to have been the first suc cessful glass-factory in the United States. Pitts burg, Pa., first made glass in 1796, and is still a most important glass-making centre. At the very beginning coal was used instead of the traditional wood fuel. This, with the abundance of excel lent sand in the adjoining rivers, gave the in dustry a phenomenal- development there, which has been increased by the substitution of gas and oil fuel. In 1827 pressed glass was invented by a carpenter of Sandwich, Mass. With the
discovery of a cheaper and better fuel, in the form of natural gas, the centre of glass-making moved west of the Alleghenies, where it still remains. As natural gas has failed, petroleum has been substituted, and proves an excellent fuel. By the close of 1880 the census shows that the glass industry of the United States had been brought to a very extensive and prosperous condition. There were then 211 factories, em ploying 24.177 men. sending out an annual prod uct worth $21,154,571. In 1890 the number of factories had increased to 294, and the product to $41,051,004, and in 1895 the product was $47,600,000. Within recent years artistic glass ware of great beauty has been produced in the United States, a notable example of which is the famous `Favrille' glass of the Tiffany Com pany of New York. The United States still im ports more glass than she exports, the exports being that peculiar product of Yankee ingenuity —pressed glass, aluminum, and calcium; Venetian glass, of so dium, potassium, and calcium. Sodium, potas sium, calcium, and lead are the bases that form almost all glasses. To obtain the silica, sand is now generally used, river or sea sand sufficing for cheap grades, in spite of the impurities; but for fine qualities the sand is quarried. American sand is pronounced by experts superior to Eng lish and French. The principal deposits are in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illi