🌟 Fun Introduction: Imagine a world with no bottles for your favorite sodas or perfumes. Pretty chaotic, right? Thanks to folks like Gabriel de Solages, who lived more than two centuries ago, we got a glimpse into the dazzling (and occasionally dangerous) world of glass-making!

Gabriel de Solages got the right to kick-start two ventures:

• A coal mine 🖤
• A glass factory 🍾 (Fun fact: their bottles were used for wine)

• Needed LOTS of coal (Which was great, because Solages also owned a coal mine!)
• Here's the twist! Training for glass-making? A whopping 14 years!
• But why so long? Glass-making was no piece of cake.
  • Real-world example: Think of it like trying to level up in a super difficult video game that everyone wants to play but only a few can master.
• Master glassblowers, the crème de la crème, often had health issues (particularly with their lungs).

• Despite the risks, these artisans beamed with pride.
• They were the top earners of their time, the "ballers" of the industrial world.
• Control? They had loads of it! Their work setting was less of an ordinary factory and more of a medieval guild.
  • Real-world example: Remember when Harry Potter and his pals had special clubs at Hogwarts with their own rules? That’s kinda how these glassworkers operated!