. The American encyclopædia of commerce, manufactures, commercial law, and finance. ficial substance which is usu-ally distinguished by the generic name, is pro-duced by the igneous fusion of siliceous earthwith certain alkaline earths or salts, or with me-tallic In its usual form it is brittle, trans-parent, non-crystalline, insoluble, and fusible ; butit sometimes e.\hit)ils other properties. In the most remote ages the art of blowing G,into bottles, making it into vases, <oloring it toimitate precious st(mcs, melting it into enormousmasses to make pillars, rolling and polishing
. The American encyclopædia of commerce, manufactures, commercial law, and finance. ficial substance which is usu-ally distinguished by the generic name, is pro-duced by the igneous fusion of siliceous earthwith certain alkaline earths or salts, or with me-tallic In its usual form it is brittle, trans-parent, non-crystalline, insoluble, and fusible ; butit sometimes e.\hit)ils other properties. In the most remote ages the art of blowing G,into bottles, making it into vases, <oloring it toimitate precious st(mcs, melting it into enormousmasses to make pillars, rolling and polishing itinto mirrors, and tinting it into parts, were all per-fectly well known. For its origin we must lookto Egypt (Fig. 233), the parent of so many collat-eral arts. Some authors ascribe, with very plau-sible reason, the discovery of to thepriests of Vulcan at Thebes and Memphis, thegreatest chemists in the ancient world. The Egyp-tians are also known to have made enamels ofdivers colors which they applied on pottery, mag-nificent specimens of which are still extant, and. are called Egyptian porcelain. These are chieflycovered with beautiful blue or green, and groupsof flowers or designs are traced in black. 6. beads,and other ornaments made of that substance, skil-fully manufactured and beautifully colored, havebeen found adorning nnmnnies which arc knownto be upward of 3,000 years old. It is certain thatTyre, Sidon, and Alexandria were long celebratedfor their (r., and furnished the greater proportionof that used at Home. To these places the art wasexclusively confined for some centuries, and was«n article of luxury, being chiefly in the form ofurns or drinking-cups of the most elaborate work-manship, and exquisitely end)ellished with raised,chased, or ornamented figures. The Baiberini orPortland vase, composed of deep blue glass, withfigures of a delicate white opaque substance raisedin relief, is a splendid specimen, and was found inthe tomb of Alexander Severus,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherbostonesteslauriat
