packed by tapping the mold. The mold and glass were placed in an electric muffle furnace maintained at white heat (1200°t o 1400°C .) for 30 to 40 seconds, until a distinct red color had crept completely over the outside of the mold cup, C. The mold was then removed from the furnace and the inner carbon plug, P, withdrawn. By this initial heating the glass had sintered just enough so that the plug could be removed without destroying the form of the glass thimble. If the sintering was completed without removing the inner plug, so much shrinking of the glass took place that it was practically impossible to remove it. As soon as plug P had been removed, the outer cup, C, of the mold and the powdered glass, O, were replaced in the furnace until the color of the mold just approached that of the oven.This usually required an additional 30 seconds. The mold and sintered glass thimble were then removed from the furnace. On cooling, enough shrinkage of the glass had occurred so that it readily dropped from the inverted mold.Because the mold, glass, and oven undergo unequal cooling effects during various parts of the procedure, more uniform results could be obtained by using the appearance of the mold and of the glass rather than a definite period of heating as the criterion for completion of the sintering. The whole sintering process, including packing of the mold and removal of the finished thimble, requires about 5 minutes, and by using several molds, so that no waiting is required for cooling, a number of thimbles can be made in a reasonably short time.If the thimble is wrapped to within 3 mm. of the open end with asbestos paper tape, it can be sealed to Pyrex glass tubing in the usual manner.