replaced, the bath charged with a fresh supply of raw material, and the process be repeated as soon as the glass is in the proper condition.

From this general description of the process, and the simple mechanism employed, it will be seen that a large quantity of glass could be produced with a very small plant. Thus, suppose that the glass materials are melted in five hours and that the time of casting is, say, fifteen minutes, a cast would easily be made every six hours, or four times per day. A bath only 4 ft. by 3 ft. in area, and 12 in. deep, when making strong horticultural glass 1/10th in. thick, would yield theoretically 5,760ft. per day (say 5,000), equal to, at least, 400 blown cylinders 4 ft. long by 1 ft. in diameter.

I was quietly pursuing my experiments with the apparatus described, when I was unexpectedly called upon by an eminent glass-manufacturer. He said that he had heard that I was doing something novel in the production of sheet glass, and if my patent was secured, he should much like to know what was the nature of the invention. I told him my patent was secure, and that I should be happy to give him a general outline of the scheme. He was greatly interested, and the shadows of the evening had imperceptibly fallen upon us in my little private room before my visitor rose to depart. He was very desirous to see the experimental apparatus; and knowing that my guest, Mr. Lucas Chance, was at the head of the largest glass-works in the kingdom, and worthy of all confidence, I acquiesced in his strongly-expressed desire, and said if he would call again the next day at noon, I would have a charge of glass ready to roll into sheet in his presence.

The following morning, all was got in readiness for a cast. Mr. Chance critically examined the rolling apparatus, and looked into the furnace from time to time, just as a man would who thoroughly knew what he was about; and when I said we had better now get to work, there were myself, Mr. W. D. Allen, my eldest son Henry, a carpenter, and my engine-driver present in the small room in which the furnace and machine had been erected. As soon as the bar retaining the charge was removed, and the tenacious semi-fluid glass touched the lower roll, the thick round edge of the slowly-moving mass became engaged in the narrow space, where the second roll took hold of it, and the bright continuous sheet descended the inclined surface, darkening as it cooled slightly. I had intentionally omitted the cutter in the roll so as to make a continuous sheet; this had to be pulled away, for my little room was not half long enough to accommodate it. The heat suddenly thrown off from so large a white-hot surface threatened our garments if we stood too near, and unfortunately some oily cotton waste took fire, causing a momentary panic. Mr. Chance called out, "Cease the operation; cease the operation!" We were all in a perspiration, and the long adhesive sheet of glass, 70 ft. long by 2 1/2 ft. wide, was gathered up before the door. The heat was very great, and throwing the rolls out of gear, we all beat a hasty retreat. However, as far as the rapid formation of thin sheet-glass was concerned, there could be no doubt whatever, and I and my visitor sat down quietly to cool ourselves, and think over what had taken place. Notwithstanding the mistake of not putting in the cutter, and making the glass into small sheets, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had just made a sheet of glass more than three times the length of the longest piece that had ever been produced, and that Mr. Chance had seen, for the first time in his life, a continuous sheet of glass flowing from a machine, wholly without any skilled manipulation. "Well," said Mr. Chance, "you have gone a good way, but you have much further to go yet before you touch the real point -- the commercial point. Now it has struck me that we have so many appliances, and so many skilled employes in all departments, that perfecting such a novel process must be more easy and less expensive to us than it can be to you. After all, should it not become so perfect as to be a commercial success, or should some other way be found of effecting the same result, you might have all your labour in vain; but I freely admit that you have done enough to constitute an actual value as the invention now stands. Just think it over, and determine whether you will sell me your invention as it stands and make at once a profit on what you have done, or whether you will spend more labour and money with the chance of much greater remuneration, if you succeed commercially, and no one else supersedes you? I am going down to Birmingham this evening by the 9 P.M. train. Dine with me at seven o'clock at the Euston Hotel, and tell me, yes or no, whether you are disposed to sell your invention in its present state." With this he took his leave, and I had still three hours to reflect over a most unlooked-for proposition. It was very exciting, and I talked the matter over with Mrs. Bessemer, and the general consensus of opinion was: "Realise,