Pages 60 - 80 Summary and Analysis

In 1302 the glass makers begin to make the colored glass for the huge cathedral windows. The glass itself is made from beechwood ash and washed sand melted together at very high temperatures. Various kinds of metals are added to different batches of glass to color the glass. The glass makers then take a molten lump of glass on the end of a large hollow pipe and blow it up like a balloon. When the balloon gets the right size, the end is cut off and the pipe is spun quickly around and around, spinning the glass outward into a large flat disk. The disk is removed from the pipe and cooled. It is then cut into shape using a tool called a grozing iron. The shapes are cut to the correct dimensions by using a template. The largest simple...