Colonial Life

Glass makers were among the first craftsmen in the colonies. But it was not until 1739 that the factory was started in New Jersey. It made glass for colonies and England.

Glass is a mix of sand and chemicals. He melted the mixture in a vary hot fire. He blow through the pipe to createa glass bubble. Using special tools, he shaped the glass. Or, he could blow glass into a heated mold. If a glass  makers was  unhappy with a pics look, he could re-heat the glass and begin again.

Glass must be cooled slowly and evenly. Many hands are needed to make glass. An apprentice tended the fire, keeping it very hot. Blowing glass thorough a pipe took a lot of lung power.

Soda-lime glass was the first glass in the coloinies. Flint glass, made later was clearer and stronger. Until the second quarter of minteenth. century, all American glass was hand blown.

They began a traition of high quality American glass making that lives on today.