Topic: NEW BOOK: CHANCE REFLECTIONS (and it's free!)

[David E]

I am pleased to announce that the first volume of Chance Reflections, covering the period from c.1500 to 1836, is now available to download, absolutely free of charge. No catches, except that each page is watermarked. I may review this later.

Please go to www.chancebrothers.uk (without the .co) and from the homepage the PDF can be seen listed at the bottom.

Chance Brothers was founded in 1822 and became the largest glassmakers in Victorian Britain. From 1850, the company moved into lighthouse optics; in 1851 it glazed the Crystal Palace for the International Exhibition of that year. It also pioneered rolled plate glass and entered the highly competitive domestic glassware market from 1924. By 1947 it successfully developed the interchangeable glass syringe, a huge boost when the founding of the NHS was in 1948.

If it could be made in glass, Chance made it.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Dr Malcolm Dick for writing the foreword and Giles Chance for excellent financial analysis.

Future volumes (10 in total) will follow in time. It is impossible for me to forecast when the next volume will be ready, but I will update the website periodically.

The current word count for the entire 10 volumes is around 670,000, and there is still much to do! If you have any comments or queries, please contact me.

David Encill