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Careers
520. Glassmaking; Technology
"...it might contribute to dispose us to a kinder regard for the
labours of one another, if we were to consider from what
unpromising beginnings the most useful productions of art have
probably arisen. Who, when he saw the first sand or ashes, by a
casual intenseness of heat, melted into a metalline form, rugged
with excrescences, and clouded with impurities, would have
imagined, that in this shapeless lump lay concealed so many
conveniences of life, as would in time constitute a great part of
the happiness of the world? Yet by some such fortuitous
liquefaction was mankind taught to procure a body at once in a
high degree solid and transparent, which might admit the light of
the sun, and exclude the violence of the wind; which might
extend the sight of the philosopher to new ranges of existence,
and charm him at one time with the unbounded extent of the
material creation, and at another with the endless subordination
of animal life; and, what is yet of more importance, might
supply the decays of nature, and succour old age with subsidiary
sight. Thus was the first artificer in glass employed, though
without his own knowledge or expectation. He was facilitating
and prolonging the enjoyment of light, enlarging the avenues of
science, and conferring the highest and most lasting pleasures;
he was enabling the student to contemplate nature, and the beauty
to behold herself."
Johnson: Rambler #9 (April 17, 1750)
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