ALL MADE OF GLASS.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 21 August 1912, Page 3

ALL MADE OF GLASS.

In these days there is no limit to the uses made of glass. Among the

most extraordinary may be cited the following:—

The bridge spanning the Royal George of the Arkansas River, in Colorado. This bridge may be said to be half a mile high, for it reaches from one cliff to the other of the gorge with a deep chasm beneath it The floor of this wonderful bridge is made of plateglass one and a half inciies in thickness set in steel framework.

In Lyons pavements made of glass have been in use ioj some time. They are constructed of ceramo crystal, ceramic stone, or devitrified glass, and are laid in the form of blocks, eight inches square, each block containing sixteen parts in the shape of check-

ers. It is said that these blocks are so closely fitted together that water cannot pass between them. The whole pavements presents the odd effect of a huge chessboard. The special advantages claimed for this style of pavement are that it has greater resistance than stone; that it is a poor conductor of cold; ice accordingly not forming readily upon it; and, finally, that it is much more durable than stone and much cheaper, besides affording no places for the lodgment of microbes.

In Germany they manufacture glass telegraph poles near Frankfort. The glass mass whereof these poles are made is strengthened by interlacing1 and intertwining with strong wire threads. It is asserted that the glass poles show their superiority over wooden ones by reason of their resistance to the ravages of insects in tropical countries, and against the ' climiatic influences of rain, snow, and sleet in other countries.