“ It is as easy as invidious to ascribe these applications to unintelligent accident or experiment, rather than to high proficiency in chemistry. Evidences, drawn from all the other arts and trades, prove that the ancient Egyptians, in the earliest times, were skilful chemists ”

“ The Tombs of Thebes demonstrate that 4,000 years ago the manufacture of glass was well known to the Egyptians. The frescoes exhibit glass-blowers forming bottles and vials of green glass. The specimens of Egyptian vials in the British Museum are by no means inelegant; they have long necks bulging towards the bottom, which, when filled with any liquid, would be much less easily subverted than the vials in common use amongst us. Pocket-bottles, cased in leather, such as are used in sporting, for containing spirits or liqueurs, are amongst the curious relics of the Theban glass manufacture. ”

“ Now, as 4,000 years ago, the blow-pipe, shod with iron and heated red-hot, is inserted into the melted glass. In the ancient manufactories, workmen are employed in bringing the "frit" in baskets, for the purpose of vitrification. There can scarcely be a doubt that this frit is a combination, as in Venetian glass-making, derived from Egypt, of kali, from the ashes of salsola communis, or kelp, and a particular kind of sand. But this paper ought not to conclude without some more distinct reference to the chemical knowledge displayed in the more elaborate processes of glass-making. ”