The coincidence of Lucas Chance's determination to expand the firm's glassmaking business into optical glass and lighthouse lens apparatus with his fixation on winning the contract to supply the glass for the Crystal Palace was pivotal for both Chance Brothers and lighthouse-lens manufacture in England. The glass for the Palace demonstrated Chance Brothers' position as England's foremost glassmaker, applying techniques of standardized production that marked them as one of the first manufacturers of the Second Industrial Revolution. Chance's success in making optical glass and later dioptric lens apparatus proved that Britain could match France, not only in manufacture but also in the application ofs cience for which England's manufacturers had so often been derided.
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