This article takes a look at the influence of moisture on the mixing of glass batches. In many glass factories, especially those engaged in melting glass in pots, some means of drying the sand and in some cases even of calcining it before use, is regarded as a necessary essential of the factory equipment. Several books on glass making advocate the drying and calcining of sand, and there are certainly at least two excellent reasons for doing so, namely, the economy of buying dry instead of wet sand, and the greater ease with which the dried material can be weighed out or measured. The same remarks apply with equal force to the other constituents of the batch. In looking at the problem in a general way, several possible effects of moisture can be recognised. This paper includes other effects than those which moisture may have on the mixing only.
