sand-jet

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An apparatus whereby sharp sand is fed to a jet of compressed air or a steam-jet, and driven out forcibly against a surface which it is desired to abrade. It has within a few years been extensively applied to the ornamentation of glass, and to some extent in the operations of stone-cutting and the smoothing and cleaning of cast-iron hollow ware. In the ornamentation of glass, stencils are placed upon the surface, which protect from abrasion the parts covered, and the abraded parts take the form of the pattern cut in the stencil. A very short exposure to the sand-jet produces the tracing of the pattern in a fine-frosted, well-defined figure. The effectiveness of the jet when air or steam at high pressure is used renders it competent to cut and drill even corundum. The results attained, when the simplicity of the means employed are considered, render this one of the most interesting of modern inventions. See sand-blast.