GERMANY AND THE GLASS TRADE.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sut,—Your correspondent "W. E. B." in the Spectator of November 7th asks why glass chemical apparatus is so largely, if not exclusively, made in Germany. I have heard a late demonstrator state that the conditions of glass-making were different in England from those in Germany. In England glass-making was carried on on a large scale and mainly by mechanical means, under the control of comparatively uneducated workmen, who reproduced by the gross only articles in great demand, and to whom infrequent, exactly proportioned, and unusual-shaped glass articles, such as test. tubes, retorts, &c., presented in their manufacture such difficulties in proportion to the profit arising therefrom, that their manufacture was usually declined altogether, or if undertaken, was delayed or not to specification. But the German makers seemed to have a class of workmen who would readily and accurately produce from the specification sent any single vessel or apparatus at a cost moderate enough to compensate for cost of packing and carriage. This precise industry did not exist in England, and a more highly educated class of workman would be needed than we had at present in the glass trade before such articles could be made in this country. This statement was made to me some seven years ago, but I fear the same conditions continue to exist.—
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