Latin Texts & Translations

In process of time, as human industry is ingenious in discovering, it was not content with the combination of nitre, but magnet-stone ^[Note] began to be added as well; from the impression that it attracts liquefied ^[Note] glass as well as iron. In a similar manner, too, brilliant stones of various descriptions came to be added in the melting, and, at last, shells and fossil sand. Some authors tell us, that the glass of India is made of broken crystal, and that, in consequence, there is none that can be compared to it.

In fusing it, light and dry wood is used for fuel, Cyprian copper and nitre being added to the melting, nitre of Ophir ^[Note] more particularly. It is melted, like copper, in contiguous furnaces, and a swarthy mass of an unctuous appearance is the result. Of such a penetrating nature is the molten glass, that it will cut to the very bone any part of the body which it may come near, and that, too, before it is even felt. This mass is again subjected to fusion in the furnace, for the purpose of colouring it; after which, the glass is either blown into various forms, turned in a lathe, or engraved ^[Note] like silver. Sidon was formerly famous for its glass-houses, for it was this place that first invented ^[Note] mirrors.

Such was the ancient method of making glass: but, at the present day, there is found a very white sand for the purpose, at the mouth of the river Volturnus, in Italy. It spreads over an extent of six miles, upon the sea-shore that lies between Cumæ and Liternum, and is prepared for use by pounding it with a pestle and mortar; which done, it is mixed with three parts of nitre, either by weight or measure, and, when fused, is transferred to another furnace. Here it forms a mass of what is called "hammonitrum;" which is again submitted to fusion, and becomes a mass of pure, white, glass. Indeed, at the present day, throughout the Gallic and Spanish provinces even, we find sand subjected to a similar process. In the reign of Tiberius, it is said, a combination was devised which produced a flexible ^[Note] glass; but the manufactory of the artist was totally destroyed, we are told, in order to prevent the value of copper, silver, and gold, from becoming depreciated. ^[Note] This story, however, was, for a long time, more widely spread than well authentieated. But be it as it may, it is of little consequence; for, in the time of the Emperor Nero, there was a process discovered, by which two small glass cups were made, of the kind called "petroti," ^[Note] the price of which was no less than six thousand sesterces!