Fish out of water

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Hi all, my name's sean, and I'm a scientific glassblower, not a model engineer. I'm here to ask for a favour, but more about that elsewhere. Meanwhile, if anyone needs small, fiddly glass stuff, give me a shout

Sean

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Welcome

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Sean Taylor on 09/01/2016 08:39:28:

Hi all, my name's sean, and I'm a scientific glassblower, not a model engineer. I'm here to ask for a favour, but more about that elsewhere. Meanwhile, if anyone needs small, fiddly glass stuff, give me a shout

Sean

.

Very interesting occupation Sean !!

You are very welcome, and your generous offer is noted.

MichaelG.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Welcome Sean,

Not heard of that skill before but I can guess what it entails, some skill, offer duly noted, will be glad to help where possible.

George.

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Thanks George,

If you do a google image search for 'scientific glassblower' you'll see the kind of work I do – although most of those guys are a lot more experienced than me!

Sean

[Anonymous]

A real skill, watched a TV programme a bit ago on a female laboratory glass maker/blower and it was absolutely fascinating what she could do. Never seen or heard of a glass lathe before then, a lovely piece of kit.

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Mick, that would have been Gayle, I think – she had a spot on the One Show, I think it was. There are not many scientific glassblowers in the UK, so we pretty much know, or at least know of, each other, via the British Society of Scientific Glassblowers. They have a website, which I administer, at bssg.co.uk

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Sean Taylor on 10/01/2016 08:47:04:

British Society of Scientific Glassblowers.

They have a website, which I administer, at bssg.co.uk

.

Thanks, Sean

**LINK**

MichaelG.

[steveteeParticipant @stevetee]

I would have thought there was a ready market hereabouts for klein bottles, handy for keeping all sorts of things in……..

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Hi Sean, welcome to the forum. It's nice to have another expert to quiz!

I wonder if you recognise the pictures of this mercury timer switch as being the work of a scientific glass blower?

It's about 80mm long, the pip end tube is 21.25mm diameter and the other, lower, end is about 19.75mm diameter. The lower end is flat, but the whole assembly tilts 10 degrees towards the electrodes.

Inverting the assembly causes the mercury to pass into the other chamber through a large inner tube (about 8mm i/d). When the switch is returned to the normal position, mercury drips into the lower chamber through a pinch tube, taking about 25 seconds to drain back. During that 25 seconds the mercury makes the switch by shorting two electrodes in the top chamber.

I have 3 of them and have often wondered if they were hand made and what they were used for. Something that rotates and waits for 25 seconds before repeating I guess.

The design and construction are ingenious. If this is what you do, I'm impressed!

Regards,

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Welcome Sean,

Now we know who to call for props for Dr Frank N. Furter's laboratory

Neil

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Hi Dave,

Yes, those will definitely be handmade – they look pretty 'historic' – certainly not something we would need to make these days. Very neat design, though! They will have been calibrated by repeatedly timing the return loop flow, and constricting a bit by warming the loop at the midpoint. Plainly part of a tip-delay circuit of some sort, but no idea whatsoever what it might be. Very interesting!

Sean

[john swift 1Participant @johnswift1]

Welcome Sean,

something I watched in action about 25 tears ago

**LINK**

a mercury arc rectifier

John

 

Edited By john swift 1 on 12/01/2016 13:57:57

[tom batesParticipant @tombates28045]

Hi all

we used to use a similar mercury arc rectifier to control the spot welding times on cars produced a Dagenhamin the 70ty s (Mk3 cortina)

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

When I worked at the Philips Research Labs, Redhill, in the early seventies we had a glass shop with a number of scientific glass blowers. Some of the things they turned out looked impossible to me. They always gave impressive demonstrations on open days.

Sadly all gone now.

Russell.

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 12/01/2016 19:47:52

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity Sean.

I bought the switches for the mercury at a Radio Rally during the 90's. But I decided to keep them intact when I realised how beautifully they'd been made. If they're historic I might ask the Antiques Road Show what they're worth!

Not quite so much sparky fun as a power rectifier, but I wanted to use the mercury to make a replica of an "Italian Navy Coherer". This was an early type of wireless detector consisting of a spinning disc with a sharp edge rotating in a thin layer of oil floating on mercury. The oil insulated the disc from the mercury unless a radio signal was present. I never made one!

Cheers,

Dave

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Sadly, I doubt they'd be worth anything – and you might even be charged for safe disposal! But yes, very interesting, even though not as jazzy as that rectifier thingy – that's a bit of a beast…

[Tim ChambersParticipant @timchambers76147]

You'll fit in well here.

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Yeah, I've often looked at that video, and weighed my chances….
One day.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Sean Taylor on 12/01/2016 21:45:45:

Yeah, I've often looked at that video, and weighed my chances….
One day.

Go on… you KNOW you really want to

I remember making pipettes for my Thomas Slater chemistry sets from soda glass tubing, back in the day. Perhaps you might be persuaded to write a short article for MEW on basic glasswork that could be handy in the workshop – just raw beginners stuff.

Neil

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Sean, he got nearly a grand for it! Impressive stuff.

Martin

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it took many, many attempts to get a good cylinder/piston fit and arrangement – given the other challenges I see in this piece, I can well understand the price.
If people are interested, I'll happily post some videos and links around the subject of lampwork (that is, both scientific and artistic glasswork made at a bench or lathe), perhaps under a more appropriate heading? It's not really model engineering, so not exactly relevant, but I'm always keen to spread the word, as it were… what do you think?

Sean

[Sean TaylorParticipant @seantaylor98558]

Oops, Neil, I didn't see you post as the thread flipped on me.

Soda glass is much more difficult to work with than borosilicate – doesn't really get used in scientific work any more. Lots of use for 'pretty things' though – beads, marbles, sculpture, etc.

Yep, I'd happily write something for you – some idea of the common requirements for glasswork in model engineering would be useful, I have no idea how much detail you would need!

Sean

[Roger HartParticipant @rogerhart88496]

I would be quite interested. Having tried glass working (joining tubes etc) I would say it is a lot more difficult (for me) than it looks. Borosilicate is allegedly easier but more expensive kit needed and soda glass easily ends up a hopeless tangle – and then it cracks at the drop of a hat.

Currently working on a very simple glass lathe in an attempt to sidestep the difficulties of hand work. Think dual stepper motors and a sliding carriage plus leadscrew.

[Author]

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