CASCADE OF MOLTEN GLASS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8943, 31 May 1907, Page 2

CASCADE OF MOLTEN GLASS.

BURNING STREAM IN A BOTTLE MANUFACTORY. Considerable damage was caused recently at the bottle manufactory of Robert Candlish and Sons, Seahain Harbour, by a remarkable accident — the bursting of a tank of molten glass. Forty men wer© working in th© department whero th© accident occurred. The glass is melted by gas furnaces in a huge tank built of stone, and at the time of the occurrence this tank contained 160 tons of molten glass in a mass three feet thick. The first indication that there was anything wrong was when th© glass was noticed to be coming through the masonry at the rear, and an alarm wa6 at once raised. The officials and workmen hurried to the spot, and water and sand wer© thrown on the fiery liquid, but it was of no avail. Having once found an j opening the glass soon_ enlarged the 1 breach and poured out in a white-hot ' stream, sweeping everything before it. I Tho heat was intense, and though the ; roof of tho building was 20ft high, the j rafters caught alight, and soon the I place was in flames. I After flooding the stone floor th© ] glass found its way into an underI ground chamber, ov©r th© walls of which it ran in cascades. About on© hundred tons in all escaped. A large structure known as the filling-house was gutted by the flames, but the enfjine and boiler houses and th© electric lght plant were saved. Afterwards the solid glass had to be hewn away in blocks.