Decrease of production costs made it possible to lower selling prices of ceramic structural materials repeat- edly, and to increase profits.

The structural ceramics works have extensive scope for further decrease in labor requirements, reduction of specific consumption of raw materials, fuel, and electric power, and lowering of overheads. The fullest utiliza- tion of potentialities for lowering production costs is a powerful factor in further technical and economic develop- ment of the structural ceramics industry and improving the quality and lowering the cost of domestic, industrial, and other types of building.

By the advantages of the Soviet socialist economic system the structural ceramics industry is being trans- formed into a highly industrialized branch of the national economy. It has been faced with new responsible tasks by the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers USSR "on the development of domestic building in USSR". There is no doubt that the workers of the ceramics undertaking w{ll fulfill them honorably. They will be assisted in this by the changes in the admin{stration of industry and build- ing and by the steady advance toward further technical progress.

WORKERS IN INDUSTRY, BUILDING, AND TRANSPORT: INTRODUCE LEADING EXPERIENCE INTO PRODUCTION, STRIVE FOR TECHNICAL PROGRESS AND ALL-ROUND INCREASE OF LABOR PRODUC- TIVITY.

40 YEARS OF THE S O V I E T GLASS I N D U S T R Y

M. M. Z a g o r c h i k

During the forty years of Soviet power, our glass industry has made great advances, It has been converted from a technically backward, semidomestic type of production into a mighty branch of the socialist industry.

This was founded on the construction of many large mechanized glass works,reconstructionof most of the old undertakings on the basis of modern technology, and improved labor and production methods which were the consequence of extensive development of public socialistic competition and the achievements of Soviet science.

As a result, working conditions improved radically in the glass works, labor productivity showed a great in- crease, and output increased to an enormous extent.

The industrialized nature and the rapid rate of growth of the Soviet glass industry have won for it one of the leading positions in the world's production of glass.

1917-1927

By the first end of the First World War more than 60 glass works were idle. Foreign military intervention and the civil war led to further reduction of glass production in our country.

For the speediest restoration and further development of glass production in our country, the Soviet govern- ment immediately took a number of important steps directed toward organization of Specialized administration of this branch of industry and the creation of a scientific basis. In 1918 the glass and porcelain section of the Sup- reme Council of the National Economy was replaced by the Main Committee of the Glass and Porcelain Industry, which was converted into the Main Administration in 1919. At the same t ime a glass laboratory was organized in conjunction with the Main Committee, and subsequently the State Glass and Ceramics Test Station, which formed the basis of the State Experimental Institute of Silicates established in 1922. At the end of 1918 another scientific center of the national glass industry was organized - the State Optical Institute (GOI).

Of great significance in strengthening the production and economic activity of the glass industry was the organization, in 1922, of the State Stock Company for the sales of the products of the glass, porcelain, and certain other industries, "Prodastlikat," subsequently reorganized as a syndicate.

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After the end of the civil war the glass industry began to recover rapidly. The following events played an important part in this recovery: the All-Union congress of workers of the glass and porcelain industry, held in April, 1920, to which V. I. Lenin addressed a call for strengthening of labor discipline in all industries; the first technological conference of the glass and porcelain industry, held in 1923, when urgent problems of rationaliza- tion of kiln utilization were considered; and the All-Union congress of workers of the glass and porcelain industry held in 1925, at which current tasks of the industry were discussed.

The start of new works equipped with machinery was also important in the recovery of the glass industry. Thus, at the beginning of 1926 the first mechanized window-glass works in the USSR, "Dagestanskie Ogni, 'started operation. In the same year, after radical reconstruction, two large mechanized works were started up in Konstan- tinovka (Donbas); one for production of window glass, and the other for production of bottles.

The glass works were built and reconstructed in accordance with projects worked out by Soviet specialists. !n 1926 the All-Union office for planning and construction of glass plants (Steklostroi) was established; this was later converted into a union trust (Stekloproekt), and then into the All-Union Projects Institute (Giprosteklo),which served as a school for training plannerso

In 1927 the Moscow Machine-Building Works started production of Fourcault machines (for vertical drawing of glass)~ Since that time the demands of the glass industry for these machines have been satisfied by domestic produ ctiono

1928-1932

During the First Five-Year Plan the industry was extensively mechanized. In 1928 the second unit was put /

into operation at the Konstantinovka works. In 1929 the newly-built P. E. Dzerzhinskii works at Gus' was started up, and a similar large mechanized window-glass works was started up in 1931 in Chagodoshcha. During the same period undertakings of similar range and capacity were being built in Gomel' , Lisichansk, and Gor'kii, and a medium-capacity plant in Ulan-Udgn. A powerful works for production of glass food containers was built at the same time in Ordzhonikldze, and a bottle factory in Roslavl'.

During the same period the number of mechanized works increased sharply as the result of conversion from manual to machine working of such large old window-glass works as the "Pioner ~ at Misheron, the works at Ivot, at Chernyatinsk, the "Velikii Oktyabr' " works, the Volodarskii works at Kurlovo, the Badaev works at Krasnou- sol'skii, and bottle-making p lan t s - at Sergievo, Urshel'skii, and the Sazonov works.

In 1932 the production of glass tubing by S. I. Korolev's mechanized process was successfully introduced in the Moscow electric bulb works. A specialized machine-building plant, the Moscow "Steklomashina" works, was built to augment the machine-building capacity of the glass industry.

In 1928 there was held an All-Union conference on rationaIization of production in the glass and porcelain industry, which played an important part in improving the work of the industry at this new stage. In 1930, in the light of the tasks which confronted the glass industry~ the State Experimental Institute of Silicates in Moscow was reorganized as the State Scientific Research Institute of Glass.

During the First Five-Year Plan the available power capacity of the glass industry increased 2.3-fold, and the relative proportion of output made by mechanized methods rose from 4.a to 39%. Increased mechanization, improved organization of work, especially as the result of the development of shock-worker movement and other forms of socialistic competition, resulted in a twofold increase of output per man.

To summarize, during these years output in terms of weight increased more than 1.5-fold, mainly owing to increased production of window and technical glass. Thus, the production of electric light bulbs increased 6-fold; Fresnel lenses for automatic railroad signalling, Triplex glass for automobiles, and other products,which had previously been imported, were made for the first time.

1933-193q

The basic funds of the glass industry rose during each year of the Second Five-Year Plan, and the manual

labor of the glassblower was increasingly replaced by mechanized working.

In 1933 the Stalin works at Gomel' was started up, the large old window-glass works - the Bytoshevskii and "Proletar i i"- commenced production after radical reconstruction, and the No. 1 "Steklomasbina" works commenced

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operation. A year later the ranks of mechanized undertakings wereaugmented by new plants in Got 'kit and Ordzhonflddze, and in 1935, by new plants in t, tstchansk, UIan- Ud~n, and Roslavl'. The construction of two large mechanized works for food containers was started in 1936 in Kherson and Kamyshin. The Ashkabad mechanized window-glass works was under construction.

At the same time several works were reconstructed and expanded; these included the "Avtosteklo" works at Konstanttnovka, the largest works producing domestic glassware - the Gus', "Krasnyi Glgant," and Dyat'kovo cut-glass works, and works producing glassware for the perfumery and drug industries, such as the Kalihtn works in Moscow and the Merefa works. In many works where hand-working Was used, semiautomaticmachlnes were extensively installed for production of bottles, glasses, etc., which eliminate the arduous labor of the glassblower. During the same period the fh:st conveyor units in the USSR for grinding and polishing of plate glass were built in the Gomel ' and "Proletarii ~ works, and were started up at the end of the f ive-year period.

During this period a series of important research and experimental Investigations was carried out on inten- sification of technological processes, improvement of product quality, and production of new types of materials; this work included development of an a lumina-magnes ia window-glass composition, improvement in the process for melting optical glass, electrothermal melting of glass, production of refractories with a high fireclay content, production of glass of high mechanical strength (Stalinit), electrically fused mullite, quartz glass, etc.

With the building of new and reconstruction of old plants the basic funds of the glass industry not only rose sharply, but were technically renewed; more than 80% of these funds represented by the end of the Second Five- Year Plan newly built and totally reconatructed undertakings; at the same t ime the power of the motors driving the machinery increased more than 3o5-fold in comparison with 1926, and the electric power- labor ratio rose almost 4- fold.

The Smkhanov movement which developed at the end of 1935 was responsible for a considerable proportion of the growth of the glass industry. By the achievement of the leaders in socialistic competition the planned norms for the production capacities of the undertakings were raised: by 3q% in mechanized window-glass works, by 34% in bottle-making plants equipped with automatic machines, and by 35% in quality glassware works.

In 1935 one of the many innovators of socialist industry to be awarded the Order of Lenin was M. N. Shes- takov, foreman in the Gus' cut-glass works, and one of the initiators of the Stakhanov movement in the glass industry.

During the first two Five.Year Plans tens of thousands of highly skilled workmen and more than 1000 spe- cialists entered the glass industry, whereas before the Revolution there were only 36 engineers in the whole of the Russian glass industry. Toward the end of the Second Five-Year Nan specialists in glass production were be- ing trained in 4 technical schools and several higher educational establishments.

The production capacity attained in the glass industry during the Second Five-Year Plan made it possible to plan for 1937 a more than threefold increase in the output of window glass over the 1932 level, a threefold i n - crease in the output of bottles, and a twofold increase in the production of domestic glassware.

1938-1940

During these first three years of the Third Five-Year Plan the construction of new and expansion of a num- ber of existing undertakings of the glass industry was accompanied by extensive work on further improvement of production and extension of the range of productso At the end of 1938 the Kherson works for glass food containers and the Ashkabad window-glass works were started up. At the beginning of 1939 a new works for food containers was started up in Kamyshin.

At the same time units for production of Triplex glass were built at the Dzerzhinskii works, Gus' and at the Gor'kii works in Gor~kii; units for production of electric light bulbs and other glass products were established in some undertakings of the electrical industry, health departments were organized, etc.

Industrial production of electrically-fused mullite refractories was expanded in the block-casting works in Erevan; production of fluxes for electrical welding of metals was organized in the ~Proletarit n works.

In May, 1938, an All-Union conference on glass tank furnaces was held in Moscow, with the object of de- termining the efficiency of new designs and finding ways for further improvement of these units. In November

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1938 the first All-Union conference of leading glass melters was held in Konstantinovka, for exchange of experi- ence in raising the output of tank furnaces and improving melt quality.

During 1938-1939 the laboratory of glass fibers of the Institute of Glass carried out the first experimental work on a new process for production of glass fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Several scientists in the glass industry were awarded the Stalin prize in 1941 for solving this problem successfully.

An industrial process for production of foam glass was being developed in the Mendeleev Institute of Che- mical Technology, Moscow.

The first Russian automatic machine for production of blown tea glasses was tested in the experimental works of the Institute of Glass.

In 1939, on the initiative of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bol- sheviks), a successful competition was held for the development of glass-blowing equipment which would ease the work of glass blowers. For developing and introducing such equipment, 13 inventors were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.

In 1940 the total production of the glass industry increased almost fivefold in comparison with 1913, and the whole output of window glass, food containers, and most of the output of bottles, molded tea glasses, and perfum- ery glassware was produced mechanically.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War the output of the Soviet glass industry, measured by weight, exceeded 1,000,000 tons, which was over 3 times the highest production level attained in capitalist Russia. This won the USSR the second place in the world and the first place in Europe for glass production.

1941-1945

During the second half of 1941, owing to the start of the war, some undertakings of the glass industry were relocated to the eastern regions of the country, where they continued to operate and supplied products required for the war effort. The production of defense material was also organized in a number of glass works situated at points more or less distant from the front line.

During the years of the Great Patriotic War the glass industry unfailingly supplied the Soviet Army with all types of glass for artillery, aviation, and other military needs. For their successful fulfillment of the State de- mands during these years many workers of the glass industry were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, and certain works, including the Gor'kli works at Gor'kii and the Gus' works, received for permanent holding the Red Banner of the State Defense Committee for their distinguished efforts in socialistic competition in raising the

output of defense material.

During these years,in various regions in the depth of the country and in the central area, the construction of some glass works started earlier was completed. Thus, in 1942 the first fiber-glass works in the USSR was started up, and in 1945 the window-glass works built in Anzhero-Sudzhensk started production. At the same time the production of glass, mainly window glass, in small furnaces (in the "Krasnyi Mat," gvtarskii, and other works) was

organized anew.

During the war many glass works were in regions temporarily occupied by the enemy; the great majority were destroyed. Because of this, the production capacity of the glass industry fell far below the 1940 level; for example, to about one half in the case of window glass, bottles, and quality glassware.

1946-1950

In the transition to peaceful construction it was necessary to restore the basic funds of the industry as soon as possible. This task was successfully fulfilled. At the same time new window-glass works were put into opera- tion in Magnitogorsk and L'vov. The construction of several other glass works was continued. At the same time several important measures were taken to introduce new techniques, carry out further mechanization of laborious operations and acceleration of technological processes, especially in works producing window glass.

In 1946, on the initiative of leading workers of the Gor'kii plant - vertical-drawing machine foreman S. F. Karasev and glass melter S. D. Kharitonov - an extensive socialistic competition developed for increasing draw- ing speeds and raising melting efficiencies. As a result, machine operation was greatly speeded up in a number of

works.

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In 1947 mechanical batch feeders were installed in the "Avtosteklo" works in Konstantinovka and the Gor'kii works in Gor'kii. In the Kurlovo works, transport of glass sheet from the machines to the cutting tables was mech- anized for the first time in the glass industry with the aid of a conveyor of original design.

From 1948 an improved design of tank furnace for window glass has been introduced; this gives a consider- able increase of daffy output, improved product quality, and a reduction of specific fuel consumption.

At the same time the production of vertical-drawing machines of modernized design, for high-speed draw- ing of wider glass ribbons, was organized.

During the same years the semiautomatic machines for production of bottles, food jars, etc. , in the Baku, Mineralovodsk, and some other works were replaced by automatic molding machines. Units for production of fluxes for electrical welding, foam glass, and continuous-rolled reinforced glass were installed in the "Avmsteklo" works in Konstantinovka. The production of Stalinit andTriplex glass, glass for illumination engineering, radio tubes, domestic glassware, medical glassware, etc., was expanded considerably. In the mullite works in Erevan the process for production of electrically fused refractory blocks containing ZrO 2 was perfected.

In 1949 the Leningrad works for production of art glass and quality glassware, based on the glassware sec- tion of the mirror plant, developed its activities. Industrial production of quartz glass was organized in the porce- lain works. The glass-fiber works successfully introduced the production of several new products made from glass fibers by the techniques developed by the Scientific Research Institute of Glass Fibers, established in 1946.

As a result of the further growth of the glass industry, by the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan the prewar level of glass production had been considerably exceeded; the total output of the glass industry in 1950 was 218% of the 1940 output.

In 1950 the output of window glass was 1.7 times the 1940 level; of automobile glass, 4.1 times; of Stalinit, more than 20 times; of quality glassware, 1.8 times~ etc.

By the end of the five-year period the production of molded quality glassware was 85% mechanized, as com- pared with 42% in 1940.

The productivity in 1950 (in terms of average output per man) over the whole industry exceeded the 1940 level by 86%.

Several research investigations and production achievements in the field of glassmaking during the Fourth Five-Year Plan were rewarded by Stalin prizes. These include: development and adoption of high-speed methods for drawing of window glass and a method for charging batch in the form of thin layers into the tanks (1948); de- velopment of a new method and equipment for industrial production of quartz glass (1948); development and in- troduction of a process for production of Stalinit tempered glass (1949); development and industrial adoption of methods for production of electrically fused refractories (1949); /he creation of a new structural and insulating material , foam glass.

1951-1955

The years of the Fifth Five-Year Plan marked a steep rise in the level of the glass industry. The output of the main products increased considerably and several new products appeared. The basic funds of the industry in- creased considerably, production processes were perfected, and the quality of the work of the glass works improved. The raw material supply position was strengthened.

In 1951 a window-glass works in Chirchik and a flux plant in Zaporozh'e commenced production.

In 1953 the ranks of operating undertakings were strengthened by large works for production of food contain- ers in Kiev and Tiraspol' and a technical-glass works in Skopin.

In 1954 a new works in Kutaisi started to produce glass food containers.

In many existing plants new units, many of which are large independent production units, were built and put into operation. For example, a foam-glass unit was put into operation in the Ivot works in 1952, and a unit for production of Stalinit glass for automobiles was installed in the L'vov works.

In 1958 a high-output unit for plate-glass production, with the first automatic equipment in the USSR for conveyor treatment of the glass, was put into action in the Dzerzhinksii works at Gus'. At the Merefa works a

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large unit for glass fibers and products made from them was started. In the same year a foam-glass unit started production in the Gomel ' works; the unit for production of refractories at the Lisichansk works were augmented by a unit for new high-alumina refractories. Grinding of Karelian pegmatites for incorporation In batch used in window-glass plants was organized at the Kondopozh works, then under construction.

During this f ive-year period new production units were started up also in some works producing quality glassware, medical glassware, etc,, and units for glassware auxiliaries for the radio engineering and some other industries were expanded or built. At the same time the construction of several large undertakings was started, indluding a plate-glass works in Saratov, a window-glass works in the Amur province, and food glassware works in Bryansk and other places.

In 1953, 17 out of 26 tank furnaces in the window-glass plants were reconstructed. The daily output of the tank furnace in the Bytoshevskii works was 10,400 m ~' before reconstruction, and 14,200 m ~ after reconstruction in 1953; the corresponding outputs of the No. 1 furnace at the Gomel* works were 10,000 and 14,400 m~; the out- put of first-grade product rose from 36.6 to '/6% in the first case and from 25.6 to 75.5% in the second.

Since the early years of the Fifth Five-Year Plan the production of large-diameter gtass pipes, mainly by vertical drawing, was introduced on a relatively large scale.

in 1951 the production of glass tubing for concealed wiring by the Korolev process was started in the Mish- eron works. In this and subsequent years glass pipes for industrial purposes were produced experimentally, mainly in the ~Velikii Oktyabr ~ and Gomel ' works.

During the Fifth Five-Year Plan the range of products made by the glass industry was augmented by many other new lines. These include television components, curved glass for new car models, light filters, etc.

The production of quality glassware of new shapes, colors and designs, to satisfy the growing artistic tastes of the working masses, was expanded considerably. By 1953 the output of quality glassware was almost 1.5 times as much as in 1950.

During the same years automation was increasingly widely introduced, primarily in sheet-glass production.

An important contribution to mechanization was the introduction in the Gus' works in 1954-1955 of V8-24 automatic machines for production of blown tea glasses.

The successful introduction of the automatic conveyor in the Gus' works made it possible to fulfill, ahead of schedule, the tasks set by the 19th party congress with regard to quadrupling the output of plate glass in the Fifth Five-Year Plan; ~is was attained a year earlier, in 1954.

Among other radical improvements introduced in technology, the Soviet government awarded a Stalin prize in 1951 for the development and introduction of a new process for production of sheet glass, drawn from the open melt surface.

As the result of all the measures taken during the Fifth Five-Year Plan for increasing production capacity, adoption of better work methods, and expansion of the range of products, the total output of the glass industry in 1955 was double the 1950 outpuL and 20 times the 1913 output. By the end of the period labor productivity in the glass industry rose by 57% above the 1950 level, and was almost treble the 1940 level.

The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in its directives on the Sixth Five-Year Plan for development Of the national e~onomy of the USSR in 1955-1960, has set the workers of the glass industry the task of increasing the output of window glass by about 56% by the end of the period, i .e. ,of raising production to 150,000,000 m s, of producing 5,000 tons of glass fibers, and of Increasing considerably the output of other types of products in accordance with the growing demands of the national economy and of the population.

The USSR now occupies the first place in the world in output of window glass.

The workers of the glass industry, like alt the workers of the country, mark the fortieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution by new production achievements, successfully fulfilIing the tasks confronting them.

Editorial Note~ A considerable number of articles dealing with the development of the glass and ceramics industries during 40 years of Soviet power have been received. Some will b e published in future issues of this journal.

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