VIDEO: Factory/Industrial Glass Making

[Greg Vriethoff]

I'll take a stab at it.

I'm fascinated with old films of factories, especially glass. I think I missed my calling, and should have been an historian.

Anyway, I like this one of these Brits changing-out a monkey pot.

I think it's good to look back at how these things were done even if there are no longer any practical applications for the techniques. Who knows? You might get some ideas!

[Greg Vriethoff]

Mold blowing and some rather interesting bit work. Even some cold working!

[Dave Bross]

I love the old ones too.

Here's Murano in the thirties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxJs1Dh7_X4

[Greg Vriethoff]

Glasfabriek Leerdam

I like the handle touch down at 1:28. Someone taught me a variation of this technique once.

I don't speak Dutch, unfortunately.

[Greg Vriethoff]

This one has a groovy soundtrack. Dig the lab coat at 2:12.

Note the continued presence of tobacco. Wonder if the guy with the pipe might have taught Nick at one point.

[Greg Vriethoff]

Since there's been some talk about the muff process on the board lately.

[Eben Horton]

Thanks for posting these Greg !

[Pete VanderLaan]

Adelle Pepper in "The glass Gaffers of New Jersey" has some great stuff on Muffs that were 6-8 feet tall. Those photos are in Finn Lyngaard's recipe book as well.

I have yet to really understand how they can bend windshield glass without leaving any marks. That's true of bent glass for showcases as well. I'd appreciate any enlightenment.

[Sky Campbell]

Originally Posted by Pete VanderLaan

Adelle Pepper in "The glass Gaffers of New Jersey" has some great stuff on Muffs that were 6-8 feet tall. Those photos are in Finn Lyngaard's recipe book as well.

I have yet to really understand how they can bend windshield glass without leaving any marks. That's true of bent glass for showcases as well. I'd appreciate any enlightenment.

I bought a 6'x9' coffin kiln from a company that made curved panels for china cabinets and the like. It came with a mold in the bottom that bows up in the middle as you turn a crank from the outside. The crank arm has marks that gauge the amount of bow in the glass. It looks like the glass was suspended above the mold then as it starts to soften the mold is bowed up to lift the glass and let sag onto the mold. My guess was after it is bent they vent the kiln enough to freeze the glass and the mold is lowered. I removed it all from the kiln as it wasn't the direction I was going but it did make more questions then answers. A quick Google search revealed this company and its process.

http://youtu.be/HDR7kwPdiQg

How Do They Do It-- How Do They Make Curved Glass- Video at YourDiscovery.com.flv

I also just watched a process for windscreens but not nearly as impressive. As you can imagine that is very automated with time and temp repeated over and over and over.

[Rich Samuel]

In 1959, Steuben opened a new showroom on Fifth Ave. in NYC. Its front window was a huge concave quarter-round which made it look like there was no window at all. It must have cost a fortune, as I've only seen a similar, and much smaller, window one other time.

I can't believe I haven't found a picture of it online. In fact, the only picture I found was this one, which was taken late in Steuben's life, as they evidently replaced the (broken? failed?) glass with a flat pane some time after 1975, and the anti-skateboard/anti-homeless bars on the front bench help date it.

[Greg Vriethoff]

Just visited the Chrysler Museum last month for the first time. Saw a few of the specimens they have in their collection.

https://youtu.be/eGXgkk1qNa4

[Pete VanderLaan]

what a great collection of videos. Thank you. I notice they don't show the tedious part of making the millefiori, namely the caning part. My all time favorite was by Dick Ritter who did one of his mom, dad, and sister. I watched that one being made.
Sky, those videos on bending glass are wonderful. Thank you as well.

[Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig]

Yes nice links, thanks. A long time ago I visited a giant industrial glass trade show in Germany, and there was one company from Japan that only showed one product. It was this incredibly soft cloth, woven from stainless steel with super fine fibers. The fellows weren’t real forthcoming about anything about it to a Scandinavian barbarian asking too many questions, but they told me it was used to vacuum forming the picture tube for televisions- for those who’ve never seen one, they were maybe half inch thick glass things that were curved in sort of complex shape, and had a florescent surface on the inside that was bombarded with sweeping electron beams lighting it up and making the image. They wouldn’t even tell me what the cloth cost. But one can imagine different applications for shaping glass with that technique.
Cool to have a dinner jacket sewn in ss.