Process
The Fourcault process requires a "pit" or drawing area and an assembly of machines to draw up the ribbon of glass while performing actions upon it that ensure desired quality and process yields. Today most glass manufacture has a "hot end" where the products are made. Fourcault is no exception.
The action in Fourcault happens "at the draw", or area where the glass is taken from a liquid state into the start of the process needed to make it into flat glass.
At the bottom of the draw is the "pit" or place where the molten glass is sufficiently cooled to be close to forming temperature. The cooling process uses a device known as a "canal". As the name describes, a canal is a box shaped structure which conveys the glass from the refining area to the pit.
The canal links the pit with the "refining" area, a section of the glass furnace that removes gas bubbles and other sources of imperfection. Since refining requires much higher temperatures to release gas bubbles than those required to form the glass it is not possible to draw directly from the refining area, hence the need for canals.
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