Bosc D'Antic on Glass Making

PAUL BOSC D'ANTIC was a Protestant physician who became fascinated by glass making and gained influential friends who gave him the task of improving the manufacture of plate glass at Saint Gobain in 1755. He spent two years there before being dismissed but continued to make his career in glass making. At one stage he came to England hoping for a post at Ravenhead but was disappointed. After returning to France he eventually became physician to the King.

He wrote extensively and very readably on glass making and several other subjects, in papers published between 1758 and the appearance of his Collected Works in 1780. His most important essay is a long one on Means of improving glass making in France which in 1760 won him a prize offered by the Royal Academy of Sciences but also offended his erstwhile employers at Saint-Gobain. It was supplemented by extensive notes written for the 1780 publication.

This volume contains translations of the Preliminary Discourse that he wrote for the Collected Works, the prize essay with the notes inserted where appropriate, nine others concerned with various aspects of glass making, and two more on the assaying of ores and on the manufacture of faience.

The subjects of the nine papers include: Bubbles in glass; Smears in glass; Crucibles from the Auvergne; Manufacture of potash; Use of unusual minerals as raw materials; and Manufacture of sheet glass.