safety

CHEMICAL HAZARDS
Alumina Hydrate: 

Al2O3 * 3H2O A fine white powder used to make shelf primer. Made form bauxite by the Bayer process

Aluminoborosiclicate:
SiO2, Al2O3, CaO and B2O3 Glass See silica:

Aluminum Oxide:
Al2O3 A crystalline refratory and abrasive.

Ammonium Biflouride:
NH4F2 Contact Moderately toxic. Ingestion potentially fatal Inhalation vapors produced in water solution are corrosive to the lungs. chronic exposure can cause bone and teeth damage Misc.: requires protective gear, ventilation, and extreme caution.

Anitmony Oxide:
SbO3 Acute ingestion/inhalation diarrhea, metallic taste in mouth, pulmonary congestion, severe mouth and nose irritation, shallow breathing, vomiting. Chronic ingestion / inhalation headache, kidney damage, liver damage, loss of appetite, nausea, sleeplessness, weight loss. Mics. birth defects, miscarriage possible human carcinogen may vaporize during firing can react with acid, forming toxic stibine gas. avoid if possible.

Asbestos:
Impure hydrated magneium silicate minerals Contact: can cause "asbestos corns" Ingestion: possible cause of stomach cancer. Inhalation: asbestosis (form of lung fibrosis), intestinal caner, lung cancer, mesothelioma, stomanch cancer. Misc. fibers remain in the body

Barium Carbonate:
BaCO3 Inhalation / ingestion: heart irregularities, intestianl spasm, lung diesease (baritosis), severe muscle pain. Misc.: eye, throat, nose, and skin irratation.

Beryllium Oxide:
BeO Contact: chronic skin ulcers. Inhalation / ingestion: berylliosis (pneumonia like disease). can cause bronchogenic cancer. Chronic exposure: damage to heart, liver, llungs, kidneys.

Borax:
See boric acid.

Boric Acid:
H3BO3 Contact: slight. Absorption, ingestion, inhalation: abdominal pain, diarrhea, skin rash, nausea, vomiting. can be absorbed through burns or wounds. Chronic poisioning: gastroenteritis, liver damage, loss of appetite, kidney damage, skin rash.

Borosilicate:
SiO2, B2O3 and Al2O3 A glass with relatively higher amounts of siclica and boron than soda lime glass, and works at a higher temperature and is called a "hard" glass. See silica

Cadmium Oxide:
CdO Acute ingestion: resembles food poisoning. Chronic inhalation / ingestion: anemia, bone damage, gastrointestinal problems, kidney damage, liver damage, loss of smell, tooth damage. Misc.: human carciogen, possibly can cause prostate and lung cancer. fumes emitted at high temperature may be fatal.

Calcium Carbonate:
CaCo2 A fine white powder used in shelf primer and other products. Naturally occurring as chalk, limestone, marble and other substances.

Carborundum:
See silicon carbide.

Ceric Oxide:
CeO2 A pale, yellowish white compound that can be used as a glass polish.

Cerium Oxide:
CeO Contact: slight Inhalation: moderate Ingestion: moderate Misc.: toxic to animals. eye contact with dust can cause damage. long term inhalation can cause scarring of the lung.

Cobalt Oxide:
Co2O3 Contact: allergies, dermatitis. Inhalation: very toxic. Chronic inhalation: asthma, possilby fibrosis. Acute ingestion: diarrhea, vomiting.. Misc.: possible carcinogen.

Copper Carbonate:
Cu2CO3 Contact: allergies, irritation to eyes, skin, nose throat. ulceration and perforation of nasal septum. Acute ingestion: gastronintestinal irritation, poisioning, vomiting. if vomiting doesn't happen then more serious poisoning can result. Chronic ingestion: can cause anemia.

Copper (ous) Oxide:
Cu2O Contact: eye irritant. Inhalation: irritation of upper respiratory tract. Ingestion: moderately toxic.

Copper (ic) Chloride:
CuCl Contact: irritation to eyes, throat, nose and skin. ulceration, perforation of the nasal septum, congestion. Acute inhalation ( during fuming): metal fume fever (resembles the flu). Acute ingestion: gasstrointestinal irritation, vomiting.

Gold Chloride:
AuCl3 Chronic inhalation / ingestion: anemia, damage to: liver, kidney, and nervous system. Misc.: severe allergies.

Hydroflouric Acid:
HF Contact: very corrosive to the eyes, skin. delayed severe burns. Inhalation burning of lungs, chills, coughing, fever, painful breathing.and chemical pneumonia, pulmonary edema. Ingestion: possilby fatal Chronic exposure: kidney damage, systemic poisioning, osteoflourosis. Misc.: HF poisioning is not imediately felt. Attacks the bone marrow. HF burns require removal of tissue. Use bifloride paste instead.

Lead Chromate:
PbCrO4 Contact: allergies, irritation, and skin ulcers. Chronic inhalation: Allergies, lead posoning, lung cancer, perforation of the nasal septum, respiratory irritation. Ingestion: Chromium poisoning: circulatory collapse, gastroenteritis, kidney damage, and muscle cramps. Lead poisoning. Misc.: Carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen. Don't use.

Lead Compounds:
Inhalation / ingestion: lead poisoning: anemia, affects the blood, affects the gastrointestinal tract, brain and cognitive defects, encephalopathy. headaches, joint pain, liver damage, kidney damage, muscle pain, weakness of extremities. miscarriage, birth defects. Misc.: developmental toxicant, human mutagen.

Iron Oxide:
FeO No serious hazards.

Manganese Dioxide:
MnO2 Contact / inhalation: manganism, dermatitis, repiratory tract irritation, liver damage. Can cause impotence, loss of sex drive, and sterility. Extensive fume exposure: "metal fume fever," like the flu. Manganism: A crippling disease of the nervous system that resembles Parkinson's disease. Early symptom: apathy, headache, irritability, loss of appetite, weakness.

Molybdenum Sulfide:
MoS2 Contact: slightly irratation. Inhalation: dust is slightly toxic. fumes from exposure to heat is slightly toxic.

Nickel Compounds:
NiO, NiCo3, etc. Contact: allergic dermatitis, eye irritation. Inhalation: upper respiratory tract irritation, metal fume fever. suspected lung and nasal carciogen. Acute ingestion: intestinal disorders, irritation, vomiting.

Platinum Chloride:
PtCl2 Contact: can cause severe skin allergies. Inhalation: emphysema, hay fever symptoms, lung scarring, severe asthma (platinosis). Misc.: People with fine textured skin and light or red har are more susceptible.

Selenium:
Se Contact: allergies, eye irritation, skin burns. Chronic ingestion / inhalation: similar to arsenic poisioning. hair loss, kidney damage, liver damage, nausea, nervous disorders, odors (garlicky). Acute inhalation: intense irritation of upper repiratory tract with bronchitis, chemical pneumonia, and possible bronchial spams. Misc.: mutagen selenium compounds when treated with acid can form the toxic gass hydrogen selenide.

Silica:
SiO2 Inhalation: emphysema, silicosis, tuberculosis. Misc.: the main cause of pulmonary dust disease.

Silicon Carbide:
SiC (Carborundum) Inhalation: irratant slighly toxic. Prolonged or extreme exposure: pneumoconiosus.

Silver Nitrate:
AgNO3 Contact: corrosive and irritant to eyes, skin, and mucous membranes. Inhalation: fumes produced from high heat causes irritation. Ingestion: coma, convulsions, severe gastroenteritis, shock, vertigo. Misc.: very caustic.

Sodium Silicate:
Na2SiO3 Waterglass Contact: can cause alkali burns. eye, skin, and respirator irritant. Inhalation: can cause irritation. Ingestion: slightly toxic.

Stannous Choride:
SnCl2 Tin Chloride Contact: eye and skin irritant. Ingestion: gastrointestinal tract irritant.

Tin Oxide:
SnO Contact / inhalation: eye and nose irritant. large exposure to dust or fumes for extended times can cause stannosis

Titanium Tetra Chloride:
TiCl3 Contact: Formation of HCl makes it corrosive to eyes, skin and repiratory system. Inhalation: fumes or spray can cause pulmonary edema/chemical pneumonia.

Titanium Oxide:
TiO No significant hazards. Significant exposure to dust and fumes for extended times can cause benign pneumoconiosis

Uranium Oxide:
UO2 Inhalation: cancer, emphysema, lung, blood and nervous system damage caused mainly by radioactivity. Misc.: Remains radioactive, even though U-235 has been removed.

Vanadium Pentoxide, Trioxide:
V2O5; V2O3 Contact: severe eye, skin, gastrointestinal and respiratory tract irritant. Ingestion: heart and intestinal problems.

Vanadium Tetracloride:
VCl4 Contact: corrosive to eyes, skin, gastrointestianl and repiratory tract. Inhalation and ingestion: irritant, anemia, asthma, bronchitis, discoloration of tongue, loss of vision, pulmonary edema / chemical pneumonia, intestional, kidney and nervous system damage.

Vermiculite:
Expanded Mica Chronic inhalation: asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma. Ingestion: intestinal and stomach cancer.

Zinc Oxide:
ZnO Inhalation: slight irritation of repiratory tract. nausea and "metal fume fever," lasting 24-36 hours. Ingestion: gastrointestinal irratation, vomiting. if no vomiting, could become more serious.

Snodgrass Family Glass

chemical hazards

Dragon's  Glossary

Piece of Mind OC

March 28, 2020

Our next event:

All students are required to supply their own safety glasses. If you do not have any, we do sell a variety of protective eye-wear. Safety glass are to be worn at all times while working in the glass shop.

Working at the point of the torch produces radiation that is bad for your eyes as well as your skin. Good posture and optimum distance from the flame will reduce these hazards.

The most common injuries that occur in the glass shop are minor burns and cuts.

Cuts can be the most serous of the injuries, causing possible tendon and nerve damage. Always be careful when moving around glass. Never push or force glass, and when working with molten glass always stop moving before the glass.

Minor burns are the most common of injuries. Many of these injuries can be avoided by working only one end of your rod in the flame. Also. by placing the hottest end of the rod or tubing away from you when setting them down on the workbench.

More serious burns caused by the flame require immediate attention. Place the burn under cold water, keeping it submerged for approximately 20 minutes. This procedure is necessary, because of the exotic mix of gases and carbon. This mixture formed on the skin can microscopically spontaneously combust casing further damage to your skin. The water will neutralize the mixture of gasses and carbons.


- A -

a (alpha): See "Thermal Coeeficient of Expansion."

Acid Etched:  A name registered to a type of Art Glass, made of two layers and two colors of cased glass. Made in the US by Frederick Cader, c 1932.

Acid Etching:  The process of etching glass with hydrofluoric acid or ammonium fluoride, stencils and resist of wax or some greasy substance was developed during the 1870s in American Glass Houses. Decorative designs are made by cutting or eating the glass away.

Acid Polishing:  The use of a hydrofluoric acid bath to polish glass.

A Cordeline:  See Vitro di trina.

Accomac Cut:  1880s to 1890s pattern of popular cut glass.

Acorn:  Pattern of pressed glass with an acorn pattern on the ribbing.

Acute Angles:  Angles that are less than 90 degrees, and can affect seals.


Adams & Company Glass:  A Pittsburgh made pressed glass from 1851, to some forms as late as the 1890s.  Noted patterns were:  Baltimore Pear (Fig till approx. 1887 or Gypsy), Daisy and Button (with thumb print), Hidalgo, Hobnail with Fan, Moon and Star, Thousand Eye, Wildflower

Advertising Ware:  Glass that advertises its maker, the art of a glass, or a line of glass.

Aetna Glass:  See Johnson Glass Works.

Agata Glass:  A glass characterized by its mottle look.  The technique drizzled volatile liquids onto the glass before refiring.  Clear glass and some Amberina glass used this finishing technique.

Agate Glass:  A glass made at the Pittsburgh, Sandwich factories, and few few other places, it was made from 1850 through 1900s. Blast furnace slag (a form of glass) was mixed with glass to produce of chocolates, caramels, agates and leathers. It was often variegated and with striations of milk glass tints.

Air Ring:  The elongated inclusion of air the encircles a paperweight by the base, often above and below a torsade.

Air Twists:  A stem type from the 18th century. Air is trapped as longitudinal channels, it is drawn out in a process of elongation and twisting the mass of glass.

Alabaster Glass:  Glass made by James Lloyd at the Sandwich Glass Works, considered an fine imitation of alabaster ware..

Alabastron:  Greek.  A small flask or bottle for perfumes and oils. Appearance often having flat lips, thin neck, cylindrical bodies, and two small side handles.

Albany Glass:  A noted glass factory in Albany, N.Y., first established in the 1780s. Production included: bottles, carboys, jars,  window glass

Almond:  Or Pointed Thumb Print. A pressed glass with hollowed facets likened to a thumb print having pointed facets.

Almorrata:  A Early Spanish glass where vessels have a narrow base and loops to hang, sporting a big central neck and four tapered spouts on the belly.

Alte Schweiss:  Literal for "Old Swiss."  Reference to early enameled, bi-colored, or decorated glass.

Alumnia Hydrate:  Al2 O3 Common crystalline compound used as abrasive and refractories.

Aluminoborosiclicate:  SiO2, Al2O3, CaO and B2O3 A glass that is highly resistant to chemical corrosion.

Amberina:  Also called partially colored glass. Dates from 1833 and patented in 1883 for the New England Glass Company of East Cambridge, Massachusets and made through the 1890s by its successor, the Libbey Glass Company of Ohio. Manufactured also under the name rose amber in New Bedford, Mass. This blended-color glass is characterized by the lower part of a piece colored a yellowish amber color that merges into a ruby-red color up higher on the work, blending from dark to light. A wide range of table and ornamental wares with diamond designs or swirled ribbing was produced with Amberina glass.

Amber Slag:  Milk white glass having streaks of cafe au lait and chocolate swirls.

Amelung Glass:  A soda lime glass, non lead glass with smoky or greenish tones that is engraved and cut with Bohemian and German patterns. John F. Amelung from Bremen, Germany helped start the German Company open a glass house in the United States. at New Bremen, MD.

American Flint Glass Works:  Glass works of the Southwick & Co., in Wheeling, Va., dating from the 1840s. Known for its blown mold and pressed glass, flint and colored glass. Production included:  blown mold,
blown flint, colored glass, pressed glass

American System:  Reference to flask that mold blown, having the slogan "American System." A commemoration over tariffs to prevent British goods dumping in the United States.

Amphoriskos:  Greek.  Toiletry flask often with an appearance of inverted pear shape usually tapered to point or button foots.

Angelic Cut:  Cut glass pattern of the 1880s.

Animal Dishes:  Pressed covered glass dishes with animal forms.

Animal Headed Glass:  Pressed glass with lids having shapes of animal heads, or having knobs with animal heads (usually frosted) or full figures.

Animalistic Glass:  Animals characterized in glass.

Anthemion:  Greek, stands for honeysuckle. Pressed glass pattern having a honeysuckle flower on a stippled background.

Anneal:  The controlled cooling of hot glass to remove stress.

Anneal Cool:  The point where glass has cooled through the annealing soak temperature to its strain point. It is important that the cooling rate is slow so residual stress does not mature.

Annealer:  The insulated structure for annealing glass.

Annealer Face:  A impression made onto a piece of glass from the annealer surfaces. It can be caused when a piece is placed in the annealer while too hot, or the annealer temperature is set too high.

Annealing:  The process of controlled gradual cooling of an object after a hot-working process, so the thicker and thinner parts cool at the same rate. The annealing process prevents the development of stresses that damage glass, toughening it. Annealing is done in a oven or Lehr and allows a uniform cooling rate for varying thickness of parts of an object. Done in stages: the anneal soak and anneal cool.

Annealing Chamber or Oven:  See lehr.

Annealing Point:  The temperature of about 35 to 40 degrees F. over the strain point where internal stress in glass is quickly reduced.

Annealing Range:  The range of temperature for annealing an object. This range varies upon the composition of the object. It exists from above the strain point to the anneal soak temperature.

Annealing Soak:  Stage of cooling that is held constant allowing stress in glass to stabilize.

ANSI:  American National Standards Institute. The organization that sets safety standards for industrial equipment. The organization that sets the standard of measuring the properties of different materials, including glass.

Annular:  A disk bead with a relatively large opening.

Apple Green:  Ideally means a clear pale green.

Applied Handles:  Pressed glass. Prior to 1865, handles were attached as hot rods that were crimped on. In 1865 a special pressing technique was perfected for attaching handles.


Applied Stem:  See stuck stem.

Aquadag:  Graphite powder in a colloidal suspension that is used for mold release and to resurface tools for forming glass.

Arabesque:  Bakewell of Pittsburgh pattern of pressed glass having bands of dotted loops with an overall look as stippled and dotted keyholes.

Arbitration Mug:  Beer mugs having the figures of employers and labor shaking hands pressed into the handles.

A retortoli:  See lattimo.

Argus:  Bakewell of Pittsburgh produced this pressed glass pattern with big vertical thumb prints, like Ashburton, or big ovals.

Arrow Cane:  Also called Crow's-foot. A section of millefiori created from rods having a three pronged arrow configuration.

Aryballos:  Greek A globular shaped toiletry flask with side handles.

Asbestos:  A form of hydrated magnesium silicate the is fibrous and fireproof. Gloves made of it are resistant to extreme heat associated with glass working.

Ashburton:  An early glass pattern beginning in the mid 1830s, described with big curvate thumb print panels. The pattern was later called Colonial, and still is produced with modern techniques.

Aspirator:  A device for making a vacuum, powered by attaching to a water faucet.

Atlantic Glass:  A little glass furnace in Crowleytown, N.J..

Atmosphere:  Condition of air in a kiln which can vary from oxidation (excess oxygen) to neutral to reduction (deficient of oxygen). In lampworking it refers the conditions that exist in a torch flame. An "oxidizing" atmosphere is high in oxygen. A "reducing" atmosphere is low in oxygen and often softer and cooler. A reducing atmosphere can discolor glass.

Attachment Seal:  Also called a side arm seal. A method of attaching a glass piece to the main body.

At the fire:  Reheating and reworking glass with additional blowing into larger or new shapes. Also, reheating glass at the glory hole.

Aventurine:  Italian for "by accident," also called goldstone. A colored glass with gold flakes of the 15th century. Also, in the 17th century crystals of copper provided a lustrous sheen, a method of super-saturating a batch of glass with copper and the copper crystallizes out.

Avoleo:  A piece of glass that connects one piece of glass to another. Often it is used in making goblets, connecting the bowl to the stem, or the stem to the foot.

Axis:  The line of center when rotating a glass rod.

Ayotte, Rick:  Know as the "bird man" of glass with regards to his paperweights. Ayotte worked as a scientific glassblowers in Nashua and started his own business in 1970, Ayotte's Artistry in Glass which made hollow glassware gifts and solid crystal. In 1978 Ayotte Weishts came onto the market.


- B -

Baby Beaker:  Little glass jiggers for spirits.

Baby Face:  Press glass pattern with forms of Lion and Three Face. Variants had the frosted faces of three cherubim.

Baccarat:  Glassware first produced in Baccarat, France, at a glass manufacturing house of Compagnie des Cristalleries founded in 1764 or 1765 under the name Verrerie de Sainte, by Monseigneur de Montmorncy-Laval, Bishop of Metz; acquired by a Belgian manufacturer in 1817. Baccarat was among some of the best cut glass made in Europe in the 1800s. Helped shape the Art Deco style after being displayed at a 1925 Paris exposition. The company is now Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat. Production included: Blown glass, Lead glass, Pressed glass, Blown molded glass, Paperweights

Bacchus Glass:  The Birmingham, England factory: Bucchus, Green & Green of the Union Glass Works was started in 1818. In 1833 it became the George Bacchus & Co.. In 1841, the year after the death of Bacchus, it became George Bacchus & Sons. In 1858 it became Bacchus & Sons. Production included: domestic glassware, paperweights, plate glass, Venetian style glass

Bagot, Joseph:  New York City glass cutter of the 1810s.

Bakewell Glass:  A Pittsburgh glass factory that was set up by Benjamin Bakewell, is considered one of the great glass factories of the United States. Production included: Pressed glass Molded glass Cut glass

Ball and Swirl:  Pressed glass with rows of balls for base lines, edges and having swirled footing and covers.

Ball Covers:  Big blown glass balls that were reputed as being used as milk bowl covers.

Balloon:  A pressed glass pattern showing the flight of a balloon, found on some sugar bowl. It dates from about 1870s, possibly from Ohio, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, or maybe Boston.

Balsam Bottle:  Glass bottles, that instead of a ground neck stoppers, feature an overturned cup shaped lid that sits over the neck onto the shoulder of the bottle. Some cup and shoulder of bottle may be ground for a better fit.

Baltimore Flint Glass Co.:  A flint glass manufacture founded in 1820 at Baltimore, Md., that operated to the 1840s or 50s.

Baltimore Glass:  Glass of the Maryland Glass Works at Baltimore that made bottled and flasks from 1850, they were a noted exhibitioner at the London Crystal Palace Exposition in 1851.

Baltimore Glass Works:  The noted glass works was started by Frederick Amelung, and others, in 1799. The plant carried on, under different management and owners, until the 1900s. Production included: Bottles Flask Druggist glass Window glass

Baltimore Pear:  A pressed glass pattern, of the 1880s, that sported a pair of figs on a fig leaf, and war originally named Fig.

Baluster Stem:  Balustra, meaning the flower of a pomegranate. A form of stem of English drinking glasses, adapted from pillars of staircase handrails, having nicely formed corolla tubes. The term is carried over to other crafts such as candle sticks and wood turning, etc..

Bamper Glass:  The Bamper Glass Works, sometimes referred to as "Bamper Hant," was started by the wealthy Dutch merchant, Loderwyk Bamper, and others, in 1754. It is assumed that the glass produced was done in the Dutch traditions.

Band:  A band, dated around the 1870s, that decorated varieties of Ashburton, that had a big thumb print with crisscross or ticktacktoe bands.

Banded:  Pressed glass patterns having stippled bands.

Barilla:  A plant from salt marshes of Alicante, Spain, and other areas of the Mediterranean. Burning the bushes is the source of soda ash for glass making, in the 15th and 16th centuries, in Europe and England.

Bar Lip:  A feature of bottles designed for heavy service, having a thick, heavy ringed lip. Found often on many 19th century glass, particularly on pressed and blown decanter.

Bar Windows:  Windows of close set bars of clear glass, admitting light but not allowing vision

Baril; Bariz; Barillette:  Bottle and flasks with barrel shapes.

Barley:  A pressed glass pattern of finely traced vines, more like hops than a spray of barley. Some pieces have stars, scallops or little panels.

Barrel Decanter:  Style of English decanters, from 1775, sporting wide mid-sections, strong necks, and often adorned with sets of rings. Stoppers were often balls or mushrooms.

Bartlett - Collens Glass Co.:  See Liberty Glass Co..

Basal Rim:  A feature of some paperweights. It is a foot ring, around the concave base of a paperweight, that protects the base from wear and chipping.

Basal Ring:  The flange found on some English paperweights that is created by in-cutting above the base, it is not a footed paperweight.

Base:  A paperweights bottom.

Base Glass:  The parent or bottom layer of glass, onto which other glass is fused. Also refers to the dominant glass used in fusing.

Basket:  A glass basket or funnel like decoration to hold decorative elements found around some paperweight designs, made from an outer row of millefiori canes.

Basket Weave:  Pressed glass patterns imitating flat with basket weaving.

Batch:  The proportioned raw materials mixture (cullet, sand, soda, lead oxide, lime, potash, etc.), that is heated in a crucible inside a furnace to form glass. Cullet can be a portion of a batch.

Bay State Glass Company:  Founded in the 1850s and operating to 1877, in Cambridge, Mass., this plant made a variety of glass. Production included: Bottles, Cut glass, Fine flint Lamps, Molded glass, Plain glass, Silvered glass Vials

Bead-forming:  See core-forming. The traditional process of making glass beads on metal rods.

Bead Release:  A compound made of daolin clay and alumina hydrate applied to the mandrel for bead making to help a bead release.

Beaded Swirl:  Pressed glass pattern featuring swirls of beads in diminishing sizes such as a strings of pearls.

Beaker:  Tall drinking glass, accommodating ten to sixteen ounces and on, having somewhat glared sides.

Bear Bottles:  Production of an early Pennsylvanian - German factory. Bear bottles also refer to containers of Russian production for kummel or vodka. The reference also includes ridged bottles having seal of a walking bear and the legend "California Fire Extinguisher." These held fire retardant chemicals.

Beecher, Henry Ward, Bottle:  Flask produced with the bust of Brooklyn preacher Henry Beecher, during the 1880s, having the name Beecher molded on the breast.

Bee Mark:  Later glass of the Higbee of Pittsburgh glass works in the 20th century that sported a characterization of a bee and letters HIG.. Belle Version Glass: Glass of the Belle Vernon, Pa., glass works, from 1834 till the 1880s. Production included: Bottles Flask Hollow ware

Bellflower:  An old pressed glass pattern, from about the 1840s, with vertical ribbing and a horizontal bellflower vine.

Bells:  Table bells, of various forms, produced from the 18th century on by Nailsea Glass Works of England. Many were made offhand or after hours. The Liberty Bell style was produced for the Centennial. Pressed glass butter dishes with bell shaped covers, bottles and candy containers of the style were also produced.

Benchblow:  The technique were an assistant blows into blow pipe, while the gaffer, seated on a bench forms the glass.

Bench Torch:  A torch that is supported on a stand for working at the bench.

Bending:  The result of sagging or slumping of glass.

Benitier:  An open, shallow vessel used to hold baptismal or holy water, in churches or chapels.

Bentonite:  Aluminum silicate clays, with some magnesium and iron, used in adhesives, cements, ceramic fillers and shelf primers. Clays are characterized by sodium and calcium content that have high and low swelling characteristics.

Bent Glass:  This denotes glass that has been actively shaped, such as application of weights, over forms, rather than passive bending by gravity alone. Bending techniques help reduce surface marks and changes of thickness.

Benitier:  Holy water fonts of early molded and cut glass, for churches and chapels.

Betsy Ross Plate:  Pressed glass tea plate depicting Betsy Ross and pierced borders, made about the1880s or 1890s.

Beveling:  To finish an edge at other than 90 degrees with grinding and polishing.

Biberon:  Glass container with a sealed on cover. Its poring nozzle also served for filling the container.

Bigler:  Pressed glass pattern version of Ashburton with big thumb prints, horizontal bands, vertical bobbin shaped spear.

Bird on Nest Sugar Bowl:  Pressed glass bowls having a lifelike bird on nest depictions, produced by Valleryshtal & Portieux, of Lorraine until 1910.

Birmingham:  O'Leary & Mulvaney. Glass factory of the Pittsburgh region from 1832 to 1860. Production included: Colored glass ware Cut flint glass Fancy glass Molded glass

Bisque:  Bisque-ware molds are used in slumping and sagging techniques. It is a clay ware that is porous and not fired to maturity, but yet ceramically bonded.

Bit:  A small piece of glass.

Bit Boy:  A glass assistant.

Bitters Bottle:  Bottles produced for tonic with high alcohol contents, of some 450 types on record.

Black Glass:  True jet - black glass was a rare American production that included some known vases and covered sugar bowls. American black glass often was a deep red - purple or a dark green.

Blackberry:  Pressed glass patter often of porcelain glass, with banding of blackberry vines, leaves and fruits.

Blackberry and Grape:  Also called Loganberry and Grape. Pressed glass pattern depicting cluster each of blackberries and grapes.

Blank:  A solid piece of glass before cutting. A cut of sheet glass measured for the base to place the designs for fused glass, or reference to a raw, solid piece or glass to be shaped or patterned.


Blaschka Glass:  Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, father and son, made biological models in glass in the late 1800's.  Some of these are on display at Harvard Museum of Natural Science.

Blaze:  Pressed glass pattern with vertical ribbing ending on top with a strong twisting line.

Bleb:  The small bit of solid glass formed on the end of a tube when sealing glass by pulling from the end. It is some what thicker lens spot melted in to the end of the tube. The bleb can be removed by pulling it off with a glass tube when hot.

Blister:  Large bubbles in sheet and float glass are defects, but sometimes it can be a desired characteristic of art glass.

Blobbing:  The embedding of colored glass chips to create blobs of contrasting color on an object's surface.

Block:  Refers to a tool also called a paddle. Also, pressed glass patterns of big irregular blocks. Also, round wooden molds for centering glass.

Block with Thumb Print:  Pressed glass pattern, like Diamond, having horizontal and vertical division separating blocks, each having an indented thumb print, made in about 1876.

Blocking:  The gather is shaped in a glass mold.

Blow Hose:  A rubber hose, connected to a glass tube, sometimes with a swivel for rotating, that makes it easier to manipulate and/or to see when blowing on a piece of tubing.

Blow Out the End:  Also, blowing out a kidney or sausage. A method of cutting glass tubing. A gob is formed on the end of glass tubing and blown into a thin ball and broken off, then fire polished.



- c -

Cabbage Rose:  With reference to paperweights, it is the cabbage like strands of glass that create a clichy rose, passibly made in a rose cane mold.

Cabin Candlestick:  Vallerystal & Portieux, Lorraine, produced a 2 piece candlestick in the form of a cabin having a gilded roof and central chimney that held a candle.

Cable:  Pressed glass pattern, of alternating wide and narrow panels, with a twisted rope pattern; this was an commemoration of the completion of the trans-Atlantic cable. Patterns that look link rope strands, or refers to glass thread applied to surfaces.

Cable Cord:  Pressed glass pattern, of alternating clear and colored panels, reputed to commemorate the success of the trans-Atlantic cable.

Cable in Ring:  Pattern similar to other "cables," and having a bent cable passing through a deadeye.

Cadalso Glass:  Early sixteenth century Spanish glass made by Dutch and Flemish glass blowers. Cadalso features are similar to glass from Nailsea, England having bicolored, spotted, or mottled forms.

Calabash:  Rounded, gourd shaped bottles with long tapered necks, similar to chestnut design with more roundness.

Calcium Carbonate:  Whitening, Ca CO2 Naturally occurring mineral such as limestone, chalk, marble and others. Used in the manufacture of many products, shelf primer being one.

California Glass:  California bottle factories started operation during the 1850s, beginning with the Pacific Glass Works. Production included: Bottles, Carboys, Chimneys, Flasks, Lamps Shades, Tableware, Vials

Cage Cup:  Diatretum An openwork cage like appearance of a cup with under cuts strut work that lets the surface design stand free of the body of the glass.

Cambridge Glass:  Cambridge, Mass., porcelain and glass factory, founded in 1814. Producers of the first pressed glass in the United States. Production included: Amberina (originators) glass Druggists' glass Lamps Overlay glass Silver glass Tableware See New England Bottle Company. New England Glass Company (NEGC). It came from the purchase of two Cambridge firms, at auction: the Boston Porcelain & Glass Company and Emmet, Fisher & Flowers, in 1818. On of four partners was Deming Jarves. Production included: engraved glass, paperweights from approx. 1850 to 1880., plain glass, pressed glass.

Cameo Glass:  Two or mare layers of cased glass in different colors, usually white against dark, that is layered and cut on a wheel to expose the cameo surface in relief. An appearance originally copied from hard stones, imitated with molds and acids baths. The technique was used by the Egyptians and Romans.

Cameo Incrustation:  Denotes types of sulphide objects.

Camphor Glass:  Glass having a cloudy-white appearance like refined gum camphor.

Camphor Jug:  Small clear glass jug for storing spirits of camphor.

Canadian:  Glass pattern of panels, with bosky views, separated with ivy vines.

Candle Bomb:  Amusement device of the 18th century consisting of a water filled glass bead. When placed into a flame, the heated water turned to steam with a band.

Candlesticks:  Venice and Murano produced the early examples early in the 16th century, or perhaps before. Candlesticks have been made in a wide variety of styles, and colors. A study could be made on the topic.

Candy:  Reference to scrambled millefiori paperwieghts.

Candy Paperweight:  Paperweights of nested glass canes that have the appearance of stick candy.

Cane:  Thin rods or strips of glass that have been stretched while hot to a workable thickness typically less than 1/4 inch. Often used for millefiori or masaic glass and making cotton twist. Or Floret, a small piece of bundled or molded rods that have been pulled out and cut so the pattern appears in their cross section,

Cane Making:  The processes of stretching glass into thin rods and strips. Multiple colors can be used in a single cane to patterns.

Cannon and Drum Dish:  A drum shaped, milk glass dish; with a cover having a cannon and shot. Thought to be manufactured from the 1870s to 1890s.

Cannonball:  Pressed glass pattern of clear glass with marble sized glass balls on the edges. Made by Butler Brothers during the 1880s and known too as Atlas and Crystal Ball. Production included: butter dishes, cake plates, compotes, goblets, pitchers, sugar bowls

Cannon Burner:  A large, surface mix bench torch.

Cantaro:  Fifteenth century Spanish glass vessels having two spouts, the bigger one for filling and the smaller one for pouring.

Cap:  To seal the end of a blowpiece with a finger, thumb or palm, to prevent the collapse of the blown piece.

Cape Cod:  Pressed glass pattern of oval panels separated by an interstice of stippling or ivy. The name was also used for a pattern now known as Hamilton.

Cape Cod Glass Company:  Deming Jarves (after leaving Boston & Sandwich) founded the plant in 1858. Production included: canes, cut wares, lamps, table wares, pressed wares, paperweights, specialty glass, Vasa Murrhina glass

Cap Hanger:  The metal cap, used for hanging, on the top of a Christmas ornament.

Carbon Paste Mold:  Contemporary technique of lining blown molds with a carbon paste to rid mold marks.

Cardinal:  Pressed glass pattern of a jay or cardinal.

Carmen Cut:  Cut glass pattern produced from 1880s through the 1890s.

Carmines:  Short, squared shaped, red ink bottles, fitted with glass stoppers. General term once used for containers for red ink.

Carruthers, George:  Established the Wheeling, Virginia glass works in 1820. Producer of LaFayette and Jackson flasks.

Carpet ground:  A background or foil of closely packed identical canes for a background to a design.

Cartoon:  With reference to stained and mosaic glass it is the design of tracing paper for planning and laying out piece of the complete design.

Caryatid Bowl:  Feature on Caryatid figures, consisting of small globe. Produced by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company.

Caryatid Candlestick:  Figural Candlesticks.

Cascade Glass Works:  Pittsburgh, Pa., glassworks started in the 1850s. Production included: Bar room glass, Blown glass, Colored glass, Cut glass, Plain glass, Pressed glass

Case Bottles:  Bottles designated for use in cases, fitting in divisions of the case. Case bottles have been designed in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Cased glass:  Covering a glass with another color glass either by dipping to gather glass over it, or by blowing a parison a prepared cup of different colored glass. It was used by the Romans, an example, Portland Vase, the Bohemians and English of the mid 19th century, and later in the United States. With reference to paperweights, casing creates a windows to view the center. Also known as Overlay Glass.

Casing:  Also known as "cup overlay method," glass of one color is fused onto the inner surface of another colored glass. A "cup" of one color is introduced into the other colored glass. By repeating the process, multicolored glass is made.

Cast:  That glass made by kiln casting, by Cire perdue (lost wax) methods, or by sand casting.

Cast Glass:  The general term is for glass that is cast in one piece molds. The molds are often made of clay or plaster, sometimes for one use. Two or three piece molds are used for casting of poured glass. Forming molds are also used to cast poured glass around objects.

Casting:  Processes using molds to form glass.

Caster Place:  A special area of a glass factory for the use of expert craftsmen to work.

Castor Bottles:  Casting bottles feature either perforated or squirt tops to cast condiments, spices, etc.. Casters are frames to hold casting bottles as table piece.

Cast Porcelain:  Late 19th century, dense white glass that was usually pressed into forming molds.

Cathedral:  Also, known as gothic. Pressed glass pattern featuring Gothic arches, like a cathedral, with either plain or crossed lozenges.

Cathedral Glass:  Transparent colored sheet glass.

Celery Handle:  Often found on Roman glass, it appears as vertical ribbing on a handle surface.

Ceramic Fiber Insulation:  A light material of alumina silicate fibers used in kiln. It absorbs less heat than insulating firebrick during heat up and makes kiln operation more economical.

Ceric Oxide:  CeO2 A pale, yellowish white compound that can be used a glass polish.

Centennial Glass:  Centennial 1876 anniversary glass made by many glass works in many forms and constitutes a broad topic.

Centennial Glass Works:  1876 Centennial grounds glass works exhibition set up by Gillander & Sons.

Centennial Lamp:  1876 production pieces with candle shades having the forms of tumblers, made in many colors and thought to be placed in rows on window sills.

Chain and Shield:  Pressed glass pattern having shield forms and inside bands of rope-work with inner pearl like bosses and a central sunburst.

Chain Decanter:  Blown molded decanter featuring baroque pattern with belted centers and chain like features.

Chair:  The glassblower's bench, which has flat extended arms to support tools held by the glass blower, while working the glass. Also, an archaic term referring to a team of glass makers.

Challinor-Taylor & Co.:  Tarentum, Pa., glass works. Production included opalescent glass as: Duck & swan dishes, Hen and rooster dishes, Table wares

Chambers-Agnew:  Pittsburgh, Pa., glass works also known as the Pittsburgh Glass Works (Chambers, Agnew & Co. and A. & D. H. Chambers). Production included: Bottles, Druggists' glass, Flint table ware

Chaplet Bead:  A latticinio thread twist.

Charge:  The process of loading a furnace with the batch or cullet to be melted.

Charger:  The person who charges the furnace.

Cheater:  A small tagged on piece of glass that protect the bottom a piece from being damaged by a punty.

Check:  The line of a crack that is visible from stress in the glass and bad annealing.

Checker:  Chequer A paperweight design, checkerboard, of evenly spaced canes with a horizontal filigree separating the piece into a grid.

Chelmsford Glass:  Chelmsford (Lowell,1826) Mass., glass works that operated from 1802 to 1827. Production included many forms of bottles, but it thought that the Lowell railroad flask was produced by this company. It featured a design of a horse drawn freight car on one side, with "Railroad" marked above and "Lowell" marked below. An eagle was on the reverse side.

Chemical Durability:  Glass has the ability to withstand wear and decay from exposure to corrosive materials. Glasses with a high boron content and glasses with a soda lime content over 9 % resist chemical weathering that produces a scummy or foggy surface.

Chemical Etching:  The use of hydroflouric acid to remove the surface of glass. A frosted appearance is aceived by adding chemicals to the acid.

Chequer Weight:  A paperweight design of millefiori canes separated by short lengths of latticinio twists arranged in a checkerboard manner.

Cherry:  Pressed glass pattern featuring cherry clusters. Varieties included: Cherry Paneled Cherry Stippled Cherry

Cherry-Red Glass:  Bright cherry-red glass made at Bristol, England from c. 1765, sometimes mistakenly fancied as Bohemian.

Chestnut Bottle:  Chestnut shaped bottles with many variations such as: Blown molded Diamond pinched Swirled Writhen Others

Chevron Bead:  See Rossetta bead. A drawn glass bead with a star design made by its internal patterns of a multilayer fashion. The ends are cut or ground.

Chick:  Clear glass knobs and finials featuring a chick hatching from an egg.

Chill Mark:  Indentations on the surface of glass made by cold tools, gloves, or water drops.

Choufleur:  French, for cauliflower. A form of ground in paperweights formed of loosely set canes with a twist.

Christmas Glass:  Pressed glass (1880 to 1900s) alphabet plates featuring Santa Claus and his Holiday Messages, surrounded with holly borders.

Christmas Lights:  Small vases with a bulbous form and rounded bases, for holding short holiday candles. Made in many colors, originally may have been votive light shades that came to be used in Christmas creches and suspended from trees.

Chrysoprase:  A color of apple green appearance.

Chrystie, James:  New York importer of fine English and Irish cut glass.

Cincinnati Glass:  Glass works of Gray & Hemingway at Cincinnati and Moscow from 1815; and from 1851 or 1852, Covington, Ky. The Cincinnati plant operated till 1822. Production included: Bottles, Flasks, Tumblers.  The Moscow plant produced: Bottles, Flask, Window glass

Cire Perdue:  French, see lost wax process. A casting technique for glass and metals. A wax model or a shaped layer of wax over a form is covered with the external mold. The wax is melted out of the cavity and metal is poured in, or with glass, a powder or fragments of glass are melted down by lengthy heating.

Cinquefoil:  A cane garland with five loops.

Circlets:  Millefiori canes arranged in small circles in paperweights.

Clam-Broth Glass:  Blown and pressed glass described as smoky, pearly, semi-opaque, and looking like clam juice.

Clamp:  A substitute tool for a pontil that holds the closed end of the glass vessel, while the open end is shaped.

Clapper:  Tool of glass making used to shape or form the footing of a piece.

Claret Jug:  Specially made claret wine pitchers having flared spouts, with handles and usually stoppers. Blown pieces exist from the mid 17th century; pressed or cut glass pieces from 1880 to 1910.

Classic Period:  Paperwieghts, Frence production from 1845 to 1860.

Claw Beaker:  A decorated beaker usually having superimposed hollow truck like claws.

Claw Holder:  A tool for holding glass such as on the base, foot, or flared end.

Clear Ground:  A paperweight design with clear glass used for the background.

Clementon Glass:  Clementon, N.J., factory that produced window glass and bottles from the early 1800s.

Cleveland Glass:  Cleveland glass factory started by Anthony Landgraff in 1840. Glass noted for its pale aquamarine color and blue tints and overtones. Later the operated William Landgraff, then Caswell, and later Union Glass Co..

Clichy Glass:  Clichy la Grenne founded by Maes, Messrs, and Rouyer, possibly at Billancourt in 1837 or at Sevres in 1838, the operation moved to Clichy shorty after opening. Glass produced in Clichy, France. Production included: Bottles, Fruit jars, Paperweights, Perfumers' ware

Clichy rose:  A rose like cane preferred by the Clichy factory that is imitated.

Clock Bottle:  Bitters bottle with a clock face marked Binnerger's, 19 Broad St., New York.

Clockcases, Glass:  Pressed glass clock casings, first made in 1845.

Clock-Mill Glass:  Rare Dutch glass item likely from the late 16th or early 17th century, some have bowls with engraved legends commemorating the unification of the Low Countries. Tumber bowls were the base for silver mill having a clock face. Blowing through a tube caused the clock and mill to appear to operate.

Clock Wheels, Glass:  Pressed glass production of clock wheels, patented by John P. Bakewell of Pittsburgh in 1830.

Close Concentric:  A paperweight pattern of spacing millefiori with tightly packed concentric circles or canes.

Close Packed:  Also "close millefiori." In paperweights, it is a tightly packed grouping of millefiori canes.

Closed Cylinder Blowing:  The process of inflating a blob of glass to form a shape. The glass is gathered at the end of a "blow pipe," or is an enclosed cylinder of soft glass canes. See: Dip mold blowing, Free blowing, Full mold blowing, Closed cylinder blowing

Cloisonne:  A technique of using gold or silver wires shaped into a designs of cells that hold enamel powder for firing.

Clover Cut:  In paperweights, it is the intersecting facets of surface cutting, a form associated with the New England Glass Company.

Cluster:  The close arrangement of like cane often used in Clish paperweights.

Clyde Glass Works:  New York glass factory, started in 1827. Production included: bottles, off hand production window glass

Coating Cement:  A colloidal silica used to coat fiber molds and kiln floors in place of kiin wash or shelf primer. To prevent deterioration caused by glass melting into the fibers of fiber insulated kilns.

Coaxial:  To have the same axis. Two joined glass tubes or rods need to have the same center axis to rotate evenly in the hands.

Cobalt:  A metallic element that is a source of blue color in glass making. An impure form of its oxide of cobalt called the zaffer provides an intense color often toned down by fusing with potassium carbonate and a silicate that makes smalt, which is used to color glass blue. Cobalt can be combined with other elements to produce more colors. For example: lead and antimony oxides produces green, manganese and iron produces a fine black.

Coefficient of Expansion:  A measure of percentage change in length or per degree C. change in temperature.

Coffeyville Glass:  Coffeyville, Kansas plant started in 1903 and became the Premium Glass Co. in 1905. It later moved to Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The company divided into the Barlett Collens Glass Co. and Liberty Glass Co., in 1918. Productions included: Jelly glasses Globes Novelties Oil lamps Pressed glass

Coffin & Hay:  Glass plant successor to one started in 1831 or 1832, by Coffins and associates in Winslow, N.J.. Production included: Bottles, Flasks, Hollow ware

Cold Shop:  The shop where cold work is done.

Cold Work:  The techniques of cutting, engraving, grinding and polishing glass.

Color:  Glass, such as: frit, kugler, powder or rod that is colored with metal oxides and used to impart the color to a piece being worked.

Cog Cane:  In paperweights, it is a moled millefiori cane having a serrated edge.

Cog Method:  A style of notation used to identify Saint Louis paperweights.

Coin Glass:  Blown glass featuring a coin with a stem or foot. Pressed glass with designs of US coins.

Cold Painting:  Kalte Malerei -- Germanic. Glass painting technique that uses oil or distemper paint that is varnished or glazed for protection.

Cold Work:  Techniques not using hot glass such as: cutting, etching, polishing, sandblasting, and laminating

Colloidal Silica:  Extremely fine silica in a liquid suspension used a bonding agent in some cements.

Collar:  A metal ring or mask to mark off a disc or template that are used and help center a design that is picked up by molten crystal.

Colonial:  Ashburton style pattern of pressed glass, named in the 1870s. Appearance of big "droop"thumbprint and droops over panels.

Color Ground:  The background opaque or transparent colors, onto which designs are placed.

Color Twist:  The characteristic colored, spiraled stems of English drinking glasses of about 1735 to 1775. Rare and faked, examples often are very restored. Continental examples are known to have poor colors.

Colored Glass:  Additions of various elements such as cobalt, copper, gold, tin, etc. provide color to glass.

Columbia Glass Co.:  Findlay, Ohio glass manufacturers. Production patterns included: Dewdrop Hobnail Shell

Columbia Tray:  Pressed glass tray made in 1892, with a shield shape and the bust of Columbus.

Columbus:  Pressed glass patterned items, featuring Columbus, made for the World's Columbian Exposition, at Chicago from 1892 till 1893.

Comb:  See feathering and festoon. The technique of dragging a tool across the surface of molten glass to decorate it in an applied design.

Combination Pressed and Molded Glass:  Combination molds from the later 1880s or so, permitted simultaneous blowing and mold pressing.

Combing:  The process of dragging through bands of softened colored glass at right angles with a pointed object to form a repeated pattern, marvering the resulting threads into the surface. Waves, feathers and zig zag patterns can be made by combing.

Comet:  Pressed glass pattern of a comet and bull's eye.

Commode Knobs:  Drawer pulls or furniture knobs made of blown glass, often cut and engraved.

Compatibility:  Mutual characteristics of glass, having the same thermal coefficient of expansion (a), that allow two pieces to fuse together with no undue stress on cooling. Compatable glasses "fit."

Compote:  Tazza, early form. Bowls on a stand of various sizes.

Compound:  With reference to drawn or wound beads, it is two or more layers of glass, one on another.

Concentric:  A a tightly packed or separated circle, or tightly wound spiral of canes around a common center.

Cone:  Small clay pyramid made to soften and deform at a specific stage of temperature and time. They are rated by their heat tolerance.

Cone Beaker:  Drinking vessels with the shape of tall slender cones often with trailed treads decorating the surface.

Conical Salt:  Cone shaped salt cellars, often with a turned over rim, like a valance.

Constitution Tray:  Pressed glass pattern featuring the frigate U.S.F. Constitution.

Constriction:  A thicker area on the inside of a glass tube.

Constructed:  Techniques that join combinations of glass with other materials through glue, epoxies, fusion, bolts, etc..

Continuous:  A furnace that steadily melts the batch charged in one end and pulls out hot glass on the other.

Cookie:  A gather of glass that has been pooled on a marver and used as the foot of goblets or base for the base of a piece.

Cookie Base:  The fat cookie shaped pad that is the base of fruit paperweights made at the New England Glass Company..

Cool to Room Temperature:  To allow all residual heat to dissipate.

Cookstown Glass:  Crookstown, Pa., glass works producing bottles and windows glass, from 1831 till 1846.

Copper in Glass:  Elemental or carbonated oxides produces an excellent green glass. Reds, blacks are produced when iron and maganese compounds are added.

Cords:  Inclusions that appear as striations of a different composition than the surrounding glass. Improper and insufficient mixing and melting of the glass is the cause.


Cordy:  Term used to describe the stringy look of badly melted glass.

Core-Forming:  Or core technique. The use of a removable core around which the glass is formed. Traditionally, the core is made of an organic compound (i.e., animal dung), mixed with a binding agent (often clay). The core is fixed on one end of a metal rod and provides the interior shape of a glass vessel. Rod forming is the similar technique, that is used in bead making, but it is distinguished by a thinner core. Melted glass is wound around the core.

Cork Glass:  The Irish, Cork Glass Company, produced a fine glass with somewhat gray, smokey appearance. May be marked either on the bottom or side.

Cornaline d'Aleppo:  A two layered compound bead, drawn or wound, often a red tone over white or yellow. Thought to be an imitation of banded carnelian onyx beads.

Corn Ear Bottle:  The Ear of Corn, blown mold bottle, was produced from the 1830s till 1840s. Its ribbing and dotting had the look of an ear of corn.

Corning Glass:  J. L. Gilliland & Co., started the plant in 1822, operated for 45 years, producing a variety and styles of glass. The moved to Corning, N.Y., becoming the Corning Glass Company. Production included: Cut glass, Hollow ware, Lamps, Lantern, glass Lenses, Vases

Corset:  Victorian novelty bottles shaped like corsets.

Cotton Stem:  A stem type from the 18th century. Air is trapped as longitudinal channels, in a process of elongation and twisting the mass of glass, in cane making.

Cotton twist:  Twists of opaque white glass.

Coventry Glass:  Glass plant at Coventry, Conn., in production from 1813 to 1840s. Production included: Bottles, Chestnut flasks, Free blown glass, Historic flasks, Inkwells, Jars, Mold blown glass

Covered Wares:  Early blown glass pieces date from the early eighteenth century and were sometimes etched, engraved or cut. The broader definition is all wares matched with covers often at convenience.

Cracking Off:  The removal of an object from off a pontil. After cooling and scoring, as opposed to shearing, of the hot glass, the blow pipe is softly knocked and the object drops into a sand tray, V-shaped holder held by an assistant. Also the tecnique for making a rim on blown vessels, using a diamond point or other sharp stone and a trail of glass, and the vessel is separated from the overblow.

Cracking the Valve:  Briefly opening and closing a valve.

Crackle:  A method of texturing the surface of glass. Hot glass is immersed in water, cracking the surface while the inside stays hot and remains stable.

Crackle Glass:  See ice glass.

Craig & Ritchie:  Wheeling, Va., glassmakers from c. 1829 to the 1840s. Production included: bottles, crown window glass, cut glass, plane glass, pressed wares, vials

Cranberry:  A light red glass colored with gold.

Crimp:  A style of tweezers to form glass bits. In paperweights, it is a metal tool that is stuck into hot glass to create three dimensional lilies and roses.

Crimped Cane:  A vertically ribbed cane.

Crimper:  Ridged block mold to shape a bubble of hot glass to obtain the same effect as gaffering (hand crimping). By placing a gather of glass into a crimper twice doubles the number of crimps in the glass..

Crimping:  The act of forming crimps in hot glass with a crimper.

Crimps:  Another name for "mushers." A tool for flattening glass made of two metal plates on either a tweezer style or plier style handle. Sometimes used to impress a pattern.

Cristall:  Italian, Cristallo. The term for Venetian soda glass made with barilla, of the 14th century, that is made to look like rock crystal (colorless and transparent). It chief characteristic was its softness or ductility that allowed intricate working into shape, and its transparency for the time. Many specimens with the term often have tinges of pale yellow to that of brown or gray.

Cristalleries d'Albret:  See d'Albret.

Crizzling:  Crisseling, glass disease, sickness. Chemical deterioration of glass is referred to as 'weeping', 'sweating', 'sick', or 'diseased'. It is mainly due to the presence of excess alkalis in the glass reacting to moisture in the atmosphere, forming alkaline condensation, or tears, on the glass surface and creates a fissuring to the glass in fine gleaming lines, like small cracks, and surface dulling. A common glass fault before the late 17th century, when George Ravenscroft remedied it.

Crossbill:  Scissors-bill flask date from the fourteenth century Italian and maybe Persian factories. A double flask, or gemel, with crossed necks for oil and vinegar.

Crowfoot:  Pattern also know as Yale that dates from the 1880s or 1890s. Pressed glass pattern featuring a design like ground-pine frond, or crowfoot.

Crown:  Also, dome. That glass that is above the design of a paperweight.

Crown Weight:  A hollow paperweight that alternates bands of colored and lacy white twists that spread out around a central floret by the top of the dome and flows down the sides before converging by the base.

Crows-foot:  See Arrow Cane.

Crown Cut: A popular cut glass pattern from the 1880s to the 1890s.

Crown Glass:  Early method of producing window glass. Method of blowing and handling glass to make a crown of glass. A parison is blown into a bubble, cutting off the blowpipe and then attaching a pontil and rapidly spinning it to expand the open end forming a wheel.

Crown Weight:  A paperweight that is hollow blown.

Crucible:  Ceramic pots for melting glass.

Cruciform:  A reference to glass, mostly bottles, that have the shape of a cross.

Crucifix Candlesticks:  Religious candlesticks, often made for Catholic churches and home shrines. Crucifix also denotes candlesticks with the cruciform base outline such as Malta or Swiss cross.



- D -

DAB:  Acronym for Draw and Blow.

Daisy and Button:  Pressed glass pattern characterized by cuts aligned vertically, horizontally and obliquely to form alternating daisies and buttons. Production pieces included: clock-cases, frames for pictures, novelty items and tableware.

Daisy and Diamond:  Also know as: Daisy in Square, Daisy or Diamond in Hexagon. An American pattern of either blown three-mold or mold-blown glass, the later form thought once to have been made by Stiegel.


d'Albret Glass: The French glass gactory started in 1918, by Roger Witking, that began making sulfides in 1967 under the name "Cristalleries d'Albret."

Dagenhart:  Pressed glassware producer from eastern central Ohio, until about 1970s when transferred to Boyds Crystal Art. Mr. Dagenhart was 92 on his passing, and his wife was said to lived past a 100.

Dakota Glass:  The name of a Pittsburgh product line, made for the Milwaukee company: Blair & Andree.

Date Cane:  Millefiori canes with numbers of letters that identify the year of mamufacture.

Daum:  Important modern crystal glassware produced by the Daum Company of Nancy, France. Revered for its clear crystal bowls, vases, table services, lamps, and sculptures that are often decorated with applied pieces of lightly colored crystal.

Day Tank:  A furnace that can cycle through its charge and melt during a twenty-four hour session. Usually larger and more expensive than pot furnaces.

Decal:  Also called transfers. A specialized paper for transferring design to surfaces such as glass by a process of decalcomania. Sometimes it is baked onto a surface

Decanter Jugs:  Wide mouthed wine containers having a decanter shape.

Decolorizing Agent:  Chemical that are added to glass to clearify it.

Decorative Paperweight:  A reasonably priced paperweight, made for new collectors, made in large quantities and often unsigned or signed with a paer seal.

Deer and Doe:  Deer and Pine Tree. Pressed glass pattern of deer (one with antlers) by a tree.

Design:  With reference to paperweights, it is the internal decoration.

Devil's Fire:  With reference to paperweights, it is a mottled, swirled pattern that is used by Millville.

Devitrification:  Also known as "devit." A deterioration process in which crystals form in the glass, or appear as a fog or scum on the surface and give a dull appearance. A fault of the manufacturing process when glass is heated incompletely or unevenly. Also caused by chemical impurities on the surface, and "cold working". Crystallization occurs when glass in held somewhat below its liquidus temperature, about 1400 degrees F. for most glass.

Dewdrop:  Pressed glass patterns dating from the 1890s through the 1900s, with thirteen or fifteen varieties.

Dewey Glass:  Glassware made for the Peace Jubilee in Philadelphia at the turn of the century, named for the Admiral George Dewey. The Admiral likeness was featured milk-glass platters, colored plates, pitchers, sugar bowls, tumblers, bottles and dish cover knobs.

Diameter:  The measure through a circular object at its greatest width. In paperweights, it is the common measure of size.

Diamond:  Blown glass pattern made by tooling and nipping. Known a "nipped diamond-wise" ordip'd diamond waise. Method of blowing a gather of glass into a ribbed mold, where glass rods were held into the rib, and then nipping the rods to form the diamond (or diapered) pattern. Glass blown into a mold with a diamond pattern, and expanding it after removal.

Diamond Cut:  See grid cut.

Diamond Patterns -- Pressed:  Patterns consisting of arranged diamond points.

Diamond Point with Panel:  Representation of a thistle like pattern in pressed glass.

Diamond Shears:  Also called combination shears. Scissors with a "jaw" to both cut hot glass, and to grip hot glass, blowpipes, or punties.

Diaphragm:  The pressure sendor on a regulator.

Diatretarii: Latin The term in some Roman legal documents that distinguish some artisans from the vitrearii (glassblowers). Diatretarii finished glass by cutting and engraving.

Diatretum:  See cage cup.

Dichroism:  The appearance of one color in relfected light and another with transmitted light. Such as with gold fuming, the glass has a metallic gold appearance in reflected light, but appears blue, pink, or violet from light shining through it from the back. Reference to glass that shows different colors from different lighting.

Didymium:  The combination of two rare earth elements: neodymium and praseodymium. Glass filter lenses made of didymium doped glass absorb infrared and ultraviolet radiation, and the yellow flare produced by hot glass.

Die Sinker:  A person who makes metal molds.

Dilution Ventilation:  Ventilation that dilutes hazardous vapors with fresh air into the work area with a cross current of air.

Dip:  To gather.

Dip-Mold Blowing:  See blowing.

'Dip-Overlay Method':  See flashing.

Disc:  See template.

Disc Formers:  See mashing pliers.

Diseased:  See crizzling.

Dishes:  Glass flatware: dishes, trays, salvers, and plates that are blown cut, mold-blown and pressed glass.

Dispensary Bottles:  Glass bottles having insignias marks, symbols of organizations, institutions or states.

Doflein, Philop:  The maker of molds for glass blowing at the Bridgetown, N.J., Glass Works.

Dog House:  The opening for charging a continuous melt furnace.

Dolphin Candlesticks:  Pressed glass candlesticks of the Sandwich Glass Works of the M'Kee Brothers of Pittsburgh, and others. A dolphin base supports a candle socket on its tail.

Dolphin Epergne:  Possibly French for e'pargne--economy. A big , shallow bowl with a dolphin supporting a glass tray and vase. A double purpose center dish holding several foods.

Dolphin Lamps:  Dated from the 1840s or prior. They are alike the dolphin candlesticks but having an oil font instead of a candle socket.

Doorstop:  Huge paperweights made mostly by midwest glasshouses in America and English bottlemakers.

Dome:  See crown.

Domed feet:  A characteristic of 17th and 18th century glasses, goblets and sweetmeats. The technique also prevented pontil marks from scratching surfaces.

Dopplewand Glass:  c. 1760 Bohemian glass. Revival of old method of applications of gold or silver to glass, and coating it with a layer of glass.

Dorflinger Glass:  Christian Dorflinger (b. 1828), a glassmaker taught at the Saint Louis factory of Lorraine, France. Dorflinger came to America in 1846, working in Philadelphia, and Long Island. The Dorflinger museum exist at White Mills, Pa., where Dorlinger retired and built a small glass works for fine cut wares.

Double Dipped:  Glassware featuring one color, often opaque white on the inside and another color on the outside. The dip or inner color is shaped on a blowpipe and dipped into the outer color for final shaping.

Double Flute:  Pressed glass pattern. Another name for Ashburton.

Double O-G:  OOG Refers to shapes of saltcellar or vessel having a double ogival curve or line.

Double Strength Glass:  Standard clear windows glass of 1/8 inch thickness.

Double Overlay:  See overlay glass.

Double Pressing:  Glassware made by pressing the product twice to achieve the desired form.