Mt. Pleasant Glass Works – Saratoga, N.Y. - Some business matters calling us eastward,   to the place above mentioned, we propose to   give a description of it, for the benefit of our readers.   

Mt. Pleasant is situated in Saratoga co. about thirteen miles northwest of Saratoga Springs. It is at the summit of one of the Kayaderosseras mountains and is quite a pleasant little place, though it has no particular importance save what is given it by the Glass Works” located there.  We might remark here in passing, that in the ascent of this mountain, one of the finest views in the State, can be obtained.  As you cast your eyes eastward, you can see the “Green Mountains” stretching along to the northward, while a beautiful perspective of hill and dale, plain and valley, cultivated fields and patches of woodland, fill up the middle ground; the village of Saratoga lies nestled as it were among the hills, its numerous church spires glittering in the sunlight; the water of the Saratoga lake, flashes and sparkles like a silver mirror wrought up to its highest degree of polish, the whole forming one of the most beautiful natural panoramas on which we ever gazed. There is nothing on earth which fills us with such complete delight as those pictures of beauty drawn by the hand of nature, especially when that of art has been used in joining and blending the several parts, so that the combination exactly meets our idea of the perfection of both.  Such a scene is one on which our eye could ever untiringly rest.  But to retire to our subject - “The Glass Works” to which we have referred, are owned by Mr. Gideon R. Granger, who formerly resided in Horton Settlement in this town and a nephew of his.  They employ in and about the “Works” something near forty hands. The manufactory is in operation during nine months of the year, more or less according to circumstances.  The glass is blown into pint and quart bottles, all of which is purchased by one firm in Saratoga, and used in bottling up the celebrated medicinal waters for which that place is so famous. 

As some of our readers may not be aware the process by which glass is made, and the manner of converting it into bottles as aforesaid, we will here give a brief history of the method pursued.  The sand, soda, lime &c., which forms the compound out of  which it is made, pre-sifted and thoroughly mixed in the proper proportions, and then conveyed to ovens where it is heated for several hours by a fire kindled beneath, being frequently turned, in the mean time, by long iron shovels which are prepared for that purpose.  It is then conveyed into the “pots”, which are placed in the furnace, to undergo the melting process.  These pots are made out of a sort of clay that is imported from Germany, and requires much skill and experience in preparing them for the contemplated use.  After the composition is emptied into these vessels, the whole is submitted to a heat of such intenseness that “Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace” would give but an imperfect ides of it.  In order to show how this amount of heat is obtained, we will offer a word of explanation as to the preparation of the fuel.  After being cut and drawn to the works, it is split up fine like oven wood, and then “kiln dried.”  That is about a cord of it is placed in a huge oven, (a fire being kept burning below it) and kept there until the wood will burn almost as readily as powder.  Six of these ovens are constantly employed in thus fitting fuel for the furnace. 

After it is thus dried and properly placed, the melting operation proceeds in this way.  There are two openings in the furnace for the insertion of wood.  They are about seventy feet apart.  A man takes a single stick of this wood (occasionally two) and walks to the opening and inserts it; he then turns about and walks to the other opening, picking up another stick as he goes and shoves that in, and thus continues to walk backwards and forward for the spate of six hours, when another takes his place.  We made an estimate of the distance traveled over by this man during his “trick” and found it exceeds twelve miles.  The distance thus passed over in twenty-four hours would, of course, be forty miles.  Now let it be remembered, that this furnace is kept burning uninterruptedly night and day, Sundays not excepted, for at least 250 days, and we have the distance of 12,000 miles walked over in supplying the furnace with fuel, or nearly half the circum- ference of the globe.  The reason why the wood is put in, this sparing and regular manner is, in order to get an equal as well as an intense heat.  The furnace when thus lighting up, forms a brilliant and magnificent  light.

When the composition is sufficiently melted, which takes from ten to twelve hours, next comes the “blowing” operation.  To do this each “blower” is furnished with an iron tube, between three and four feet long and about three-fourths of an inch in diameter.  He then inserts one end of this into the melted glass which is about the consistency of thick buck wheat batter though of a different texture, and takes what he judges will form a bottle.  He then commences rolling the tube in his fingers, and after a little roll of the composition on a smooth stone that is before him until a rough draft of a bottle is made to appear.  He then places the glass bottle connected with the tube into a cast iron mold that is fixed in the floor on which he stands and which mold is of the exact shape of the bottle to be made and he puts it in the mold drops his foot and puts his mouth to the top of the “tube” and blows vigorously.  He then lifts his foot, the mold opens and the bottle is made except the nozzle.  He then thrusts the bottle back into the furnace and heats it slightly, withdraws it, and by a dexterous jerk, disconnects the bottle from the “tube.”  He next takes a small portion of the glass and forms a ring around the top of the neck, and before it hardens places it in a steel die, and turning it round a few times rapidly, the crease and protuberances are which finishes the bottle.

It is then taken and placed in an oven where it is properly tempered, then it is packed away with its fellows, and sent to its destnation.