This Eastman Classroom Film is titled “Glass Blowing Technique with Pyrex Glass”. It dates to the late 1920s and was part of a series of educational films made by Kodak. This would have been accompanied by a script or hand-out when shown in the classrom. Two major techniques can be employed for glass blowing. These are the free-blowing and the mold-blowing methods. The free-blowing technique will be explored in this film. This method has been the dominant position in glass forming dating back to the first century BC and is still widely used today.
Eastman Classroom films title card (:10). Eastman created films such as this for educational use in the classroom or in libraries. The first technique is to be explored using Pyrex glass. Pyrex glass is borosilicate glass tempered with great thermal and mechanical shock resistance. The film was prepared by Kodak Research Laboratories (:22). A 1920’s era set up for a glass blowing session is presented (:26). A gas flame is ignited (:37) and the oxygen tank is opened (:41). A glass blower prepares his tools (:57). He pulls apart the tube (1:16). A clean glass blowing tube is set on the work table (1:33). The film notes the tube ends must be polished prior to working with them (1:58). The blower holds the ends over a flame (2:06). The heated edges are scraped off (2:37). The man displays the proper method of turning the tube (2:46) with close shots on hand movement (2:55). The flame heats the glass enough as the two portions are pulled apart with ease (3:04). A tube is drawn out (3:25). A stopper is employed on one end of the tube (4:01). A tube is bent to form a curved right angle (4:14). The glass blower joins two tubes (4:48) rotating them as he goes. The film turns to show a second method which must be employed when the tubes cannot be rotated (5:37). T or Y tubes are formed using the same method (6:16). The tube is heated directly in the center as the flame becomes colored (6:32). The glass blower blows into one end as he works (6:36). The side of the tube is sealed (6:58).
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
