In a message dated 6/1/2001 6:10:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< > The old glassy square edged tile was glassy and square edged because it
was
 >  made from sheets of opaque white glass cut into squares.

 Oh, Ralphie ... I am SOOOOO glad you know the answers to these quirky kinds
 of questions!  Thanks for the great explanation. I am putting it in my "20th
 C. Building Materials" book.
  >>

Mah Deah Miz Julep,

I misspoke. Or miswrote. Or mis-emailed.  Or whatever you call this process.

The opaque white sheets of glass were cut into rectangles. I don't believe I
ever saw them cut into squares....although depending on the exact proportions
of the tile, a half one (a filler?) could be a square. But I have a feeling
that even the half ones weren't equilateral, however. We could verify this
once and for all if Mr. Sharpshooter would duck into his nearby olde subway
station and check the dims of the old half tiles at the end of the row, and
report back to the assembled multitudes.  No doubt david (to say nothing of
Philip in OH10) is eagerly awaiting this information.

On a related matter, I woulda thunk the part about how you're screwed if your
contractor cuts the glass the wrong way would've been more useful to those
attempting to recreate the subway tile look, but I must admit the section you
excerpted above was more pithy.  Yeth, indeed.

Ralph

PS--My spellcheck objected to "Ralphie." Did yours?