bubble
you will see streaks playing about in it, just like the wavy streaks you
notice in the glass.

The bubble is blown, opened at the ends, and manipulated with tools
while hot, until it is the shape of a drain-pipe; then cut down one side
and opened out upon a flattening-stone until the round pipe is a flat
sheet; and it is this stone which gives the glass the different texture,
the dimpled surface which you notice.

Some glasses are "flashed"; that is to say, a bubble is blown which is
mainly composed of white glass; but, before blowing, it is also dipped
into another coloured glass--red, perhaps, or blue--and the two are then
blown together, so that the red or blue glass spreads out into a thin
film closely united to, in fact fused on to, and completely one with,
the white glass which forms the base; most "Ruby" glasses are made in
this way.

CHAPTER II

Cutting (elementary)--The Diamond--The Wheel--Sharpening--How to
Cut--Amount of Force--- The Beginner's Mistake--Tapping--Possible
and Impossible Cuts--"Grozeing"--Defects of the Wheel--The Actual
Nature of a "Cut" in Glass.

No written directions can teach the use of the diamond; it is as
sensitive to the hand as the string of a violin, and a good workman
feels with a most delicate touch exactly where the cutting edge is, and
uses his tool accordingly. Every apprentice counts on spoiling a guinea
diamond in the learning, which will take him from one to two years.

Most cutters now use the wheel, of which illustrations are given (figs.
1 and 2).

[Illustration: FIGS. 1 AND 2.]

The wheels themselves are good things, and cut as well as the diamond,
in some respects almost better; but many of the handles are very
unsatisfactory. From some of them indeed one might suppose, if such a
thing were conceivable, that the maker knew nothing of the use of the
tool.

For it is held thus (fig. 5), the pressure of the _forefinger_ both
guiding the cut and supplying force for it: and they give you an _edge_
to press on (fig. 1) instead of a surface! In some other patterns,
indeed, they do give you the desired surface, but the tool is so thin
that there is nothing to grip. What ought to be done is to reproduce the
shape of the old wooden handle of the diamond proper (figs. 3 and 4).

[Illustration: FIGS. 3 AND 4.]

The foregoing passage must, however, be amplified and modified, but this
I will do further on, for you will understand the r