ANIMALS OF BLOWN GLASS 
By Herman O. Mueller 
HE technique of glass-blowing is 
many sided and allows con- 
struction of intricate and truth- 
ful models from life, of animals as well 
as of plants such as the famed Harvard 
glass flowers. The invention of the 
blowpipe at the early date of the first 
century before Christ, opened up an era 
for glass-modeling. In the process pre- 
vious to that time molten glass or “ glass 
paste” had been molded free-hand over 
a clay form, which could be easily re- 
moved after the glass cooled. 
The blowpipe consists of an iron tube 
Ba ee wen Naps atte 
ee 
- 
by 
The blast lamp is an essential part of the 
equipment, but the trained eye and hand of 
the worker are his most important tools 
about one and one-half inches long and 
one and one-fifth inches in diameter, 
with the aid of which the glass paste 
is blown to the desired shape. The 
mechanical tools which the glass-blower 
uses have always been very simple and 
relatively unimportant, but the natural 
instruments — the eye and the hand of 
the worker — are of the greatest signifi- 
cance. 
The most important instrument in 
glass-blowing is the blast lamp. This 
is a very simple affair and consists of 
a brass tube about three-quarters of 
an inch in diameter and three to four 
inches long, into which a smaller tube is 
inserted. The larger tube supplies the 
gas and the smaller one the air. The 
relative quantity of gas and air is regu- 
lated by means of cocks attached to the 
tubes. A steady air pressure to increase 
the heat intensity of the flame is created 
by means of bellows, or still better by a 
compressed-air pump. 
In early times an oil lamp was used 
in this apparatus, and the name “lampen 
arbeiter’’ was applied to the users to 
distinguish them from the workers in 
the glass factories. In some of the 
European glass-blowing districts the oil 
lamp is still used for glass-blowing. The 
gas lamp however is of course far supe- 
rior. It naturally produces a consider- 
ably more powerful flame, and_ this 
makes possible the modeling of much 
larger objects. Other tools for glass- 
modeling are forceps of various shapes, 
scissors, carbon and iron pencils of differ- 
ent sizes and forms, and files. The 
forceps are used for handling the separate 
pieces of glass while being welded; the 
scissors are used for cutting away the 
superfluous glass; the carbon and iron 
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