Description:
Print is labeled at bottom, "GROUND PLAN OF/ A CYLINDER GLASS HOUSE." This image is an illustration from the American Journal of Science and the Arts, vol. 16, 1829, pp. 112- 123, by Horatio N. Fenn, M.D. on "On the Manufacture of Glass." The image details a bird's eye view of a glass house with on the left - a Mixing Room - for mixing the batch of glass -sand, potash, and lime, Store Room - for storage of the finished product, and a Pot Room - for the crucibles or clay pots that the glass batch is melted in, in the center left is a diagram of a glassblowing room around a furnace - different areas are labeled "Blowing Benches," "Fire Place," "Water Troughs;" in the center is a rectangular diagram of chambers including an "Ash or Coal House," "Wood Ovens," a "Pot Oven," and a "Stone Oven." On the right hand side is a diagram of a building with certain sections labeled C, D, E, F, & G; on the far right side are the following rooms of the glasshouse, "Box Shop," - where the wooden boxes that the glass is packed in are constructed; "Packing Room" - where the glass panes are packed for transport, and "Cutting Room," - where the glass is cut into panes of different sizes. At the top of the print are end views and side views labelled left to right: "End view of the Furnace," "Side view of the Furnace," "Front view of the Wood Oven," and "East View of the Flatting Oven." At the lower right hand corner is the inscription for "A Doolittle, sc." This copper plate engraving depicts the floor plan of an early American cylinder glass house - probably in New England; cylinder glass is the process of making window glass by taking a large hollow gather of glass and swinging it in a deep trench to elongate it; after the proper length is reached, the tubes are placed on a rack; the glass tube has both ends cut off and the center cut down the middle; in order to flatten out these tubes of glass, they are taken on forks to a furnace where they unfurl and flatten; after cooling and annealing the glass is cut into panes; there is no bullseye created in this process like there is with crown glass; this techinique is more associated with German or Bohemian producers of glass than with English; but American glasshouses made both types of window glass; this glass has uniform width but also can be marred on the surface from the unfurling process and thence less brilliant or clear than crown glass; Amos Doolittle, the engraver of this image, was an American engraver and silversmith, known as "The Revere of Connecticut." A self-taught artist from Cheshire, CT, Doolittle became an expert in copper plate engraving and specialized in scenes of the Revolutionary war. He was sought out by many early Americans eager to learn the art of engraving, including James Wilson and Ralph Earl. Doolittle was also member of the Governor's Second Company of Guards under Capt. Benedict Arnold. He settled in New Haven, Connecticut and is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven.
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