Calcinid flints as white as flower

Robert Hooke recorded in his diary for July 29 1673 : "with Dr [Christopher] Wren to the new Glashouse at the Savoy. Saw calcind flints as white as flower, Borax, Niter and tarter, with which he [Ravenscroft] made his glasse he denyd to use arsenick he shewd pretty representations of Agates by glasse etc.”


The Diary of Robert Hooke, M A M D, F.R.S. 1672-1680 ed. Henry W. Robinson and Walter Adams (London 1935), p 53. see also ibid p 89.




Changes in the glass industry were slow with mold-blowing still practiced in similar fashion. L M Angus-Butterworth, author of Chapter 12 (pp 358-378), does well to concentrate on the various processes used in making lenses, tubing, rod, mirrors, and window glass rather than on domestic ware which, being eagerly sought by collectors, has always received a disproportionate amount of publicity. He also gives a useful section on coloured glasses. The curiosities of industry and applied sciences by George Dodd – London, 1852. the plate-Glass-Book by a glasshouse clerk , London 1771; treatise on the origin, progressive improvement and present state of the manufacture of porcelain and glass, by G R Porter London; the crown glass cutter and glazier’s manual, by William Cooper, Edinburg, 1835; and treatise on the Art of Glass Making, by William Gillinder, Birmingham, 1851.


Anotnio Neri, at the beginning of 17th century; The Art of Glass, 1662