Answer:
The discovery may have been <u>accidental</u>.
Explanation:
The group of sailors were simply trying to cook food over fire, not create glass.
A descriptive passage that might reveal more information about Silas could be the following;
<span>"Strangely Marner’s face and figure shrank and bent themselves into a constant mechanical relation to the objects of his life, so that he produced the same sort of impression as a handle or a crooked tube, which has no meaning standing apart. The prominent eyes that used to look trusting and dreamy, now looked as if they had been made to see only one kind of thing that was very small, like tiny grain, for which they hunted everywhere; and he was so withered and yellow, that, though he was not yet forty, the children always called him “Old Master Marner.” (chapter 2)
</span>From this excerpt, the reader might get to know that he lives a mechanical life in the industrialized world so he seems to be dehumanized just for the fact that he lives to work and get money. It could be also perceived that his eyesight had been damaged because of work but his ability to see goes beyond the literal meaning of it. he is also deteriorated both physically, mentally and spiritual
