The inventions of Fourcault, which are at present being developed on the Continent by a syndicate of glass manufacturers, aim at a much more direct process. Here also the glass is drawn direct from the molten bath by the aid of a drawing-iron that is immersed in the glass and then slowly raised, but in this case the piece immersed is simply a straight bar, and the aim is to draw out a flat sheet. In this case the tendency, under surface tension, is to contract the sheet into a thread, and apparently the simple device of chilling the emerging glass is not adequate to prevent this in a satisfactory manner, and subsidiary devices have been added. Those that have been patented include a mechanism of linked metal rods so arranged as to be immersed and drawn out of the glass continuously with the emerging sheet, in such a manner as to support the vertical edges of the glass and so aid in resisting the tendency of the glass to contract laterally. Another device consists in the use of a slit or orifice formed in a large fire-brick that floats on the surface of the glass. Through this orifice the glass is drawn, of the desired thickness and width. The use of this orifice, however, interferes markedly with the perfection of the product, and in fact all the glass produced in this way shows quite plainly a set of longitudinal striations due to the inevitable irregularities in the lips of the drawing slot. Further, it appears to be impracticable to draw _thin_ glass in this way, a thickness of from 2½ to 3 millimetres (about 1/8 inch) being the least that is practicable, on account of the large amount of breakage that occurs with weaker sheets. This process, in its present stage of development, however promising, does not appear to have solved the problem of mechanical manufacture of sheet-glass, since it is just in the thinner, lighter kinds of glass that the advantages of sheet are most pronounced. On the other hand, it is quite possible that this drawing process, or some development arising from it, may shortly supplant the casting process in the production of polished plate-glass, although for the largest sizes of this product also, the difficulty and danger of handling the weights involved may prove a serious obstacle.