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Laboratory glassblowers are spectacularly valuable. Unfortunately, the funding for such work is insufficient to maintain a pipeline of trained glassblowers, lea

by ISL 8y ago

Laboratory glassblowers are spectacularly valuable. Unfortunately, the funding for such work is insufficient to maintain a pipeline of trained glassblowers, leading to the now-perpetual shortage of scientific glassblowers. I don't know what will happen in another generation.

daodedickinson 8y ago
How was this funded in the past?
- berbec 8y ago
  More government research grants was likely a large part of it. The article mentions the heyday after WWII, referencing a flood of capital into the sciences.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
  If you pay for multiple glass blowers at a University, then you can have a Master and an Apprentice. But you are paying for more blowing than you strictly need. If you pay for the exact amount of glass blowing you need, you will only have 1 glass blower per institution and there isn't room for apprenticeship. Seems like an easy fix would be a "Glass Blowers of Southern California" shop, where a few glass blowers could service USC, UCLA, and a couple other schools at the same time. That way you could still easily meet with the blower locally, but it wouldn't be on campus. Northern California wouldn't need a shop because Stanford, and Berkeley already have a bevy of glass blowing experts.
  - ethbro 8y ago
    Or better yet, have apprentices at each institution, with a traveling master whose cost is shared across institutions. Apprentices take care of day-to-day work on their own, have oversight, and universities don't have to afford their own master glassblower.
    - lev99 8y ago
      Why are several apprentices and one traveling master better than a centralized group of glassblowers?
      - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
        I think he meant better in terms of long term sustainability of that skill set.
      - thefifthsetpin 8y ago
        One benefit would be the logistics of getting an apprentice's glass to an institution that needs it.
- Someone 8y ago
  Problem is that there was an entire industry that supplied glass blowers (for example, there was a time incandescent bulbs were hand-blown) If most of the glasswork in your lab has to be hand-made, you need dozens of people to do the job, junior personnel can be trained on the easier pieces, and the best of them can grow into experts making unica. Nowadays, there’s no need for junior glassblowers, so to get an expert, you’ll have to pay a candidate for years, possibly decades, without getting any benefits from it. Worse, there’s no guarantee that the person you hire will ever become good enough to do the job. Health and safety also may have made it more expensive. Glassblowing also isn’t the healthiest job. Burns and cuts go with the job, various fumes are toxic, there’s “glassblower’s cataract”, and it is heavy labor (e.g. when lifting a few kilograms of glass at the end of a pipe that’s meters long)
meko 8y ago
Perhaps the hobbyists who are trying to make a career blowing bongs and dab rigs will decide it's a good route to go legit.
- rhombocombus 8y ago
  That may sound cheeky, but I have seen incredibly skilled glasswork coming from today's pipe makers. I am sure there is a lot of overlap in technique at a certain level.
  - iaw 8y ago
    There's either an article or a documentary detailing how some of the modern pipe glassblowing has its roots directly in scientific glass blowing. The one problem is they don't seem to need anywhere near the degree of precision.
    - code_duck 8y ago
      That is not quite accurate. It is actually quite demanding technically to make the artistic glassware like you see out there these days, and is a different set of skills than scientific glassblowing. Most scientific glassblowers have never worked with color, at all. It's almost funny to see what they do, compared to their skill with clear, which is extreme. Mike Gnann is admired within our artistic field and does well with both... https://www.instagram.com/merge_scientific https://www.instagram.com/merge_scientific But if you compare that with someone like https://www.instagram.com/eusheen https://www.instagram.com/eusheen who is at the top of the artistic pipe niche, I think you can see that there are equal amounts of precision involved. It matters where you're trying to fit in the market, of course. Someone can buy a torch, get rudimentary lessons and be making some sort of income from pipes within a year. You would be able to make some scientific glass items after six months, but not enough to get hired anywhere, except maybe in India (which is really the key here).
  - apricot 8y ago
    (Points to a swan neck flask) You can put your WEED in there.
SilasX 8y ago
"Why? Why can't we find good glassblowers? Who is telling people they shouldn't take up jobs in the trades? What vile troublemaker is spreading this harmful rumor that the only viable career path is a university degree? Oh, hey, gotta speak at a high school in twenty minutes to promote education."
Gibbon1 8y ago
They are also spectacularly underpaid as well. For whatever reason I know a lot of a) Neon workers who used to do scientific glass blowing. But left because neon paid better. b) Glass workers that make glass pipes because it pays better than scientific glass blowing or neon work. Note: Potheads will spend in ordinate amounts of money on paraphernalia.
- civilitty 8y ago
  Note: Potheads will spend in ordinate amounts of money on paraphernalia. That's true but most of them spend inordinate amounts of money over a large number of pieces, which doesn't leave enough profit per piece to really support a skilled craftsman. Cannabis is already pretty expensive for a heavy smoker (1/8th of flower or 1g of concentrates a day is easily $30-40/day) and the aesthetic of cheap glass is good enough for the vast majority of people. Out of the dozens of heavy smokers I know in Washington, I'm the only one with any glass pieces worth over $1,000 and they are all practically indestructible so they get replaced at a rate of once every 4-5 years instead of every other month.
  - Gibbon1 8y ago
    It's been a while but glass worker I knew said a simple pipe you can turn out in a few minutes. So 50-100 a day depending on how much boredom you can stand. You get about $5-10 each. Bonus cash business. Double bonus, your Hippie GF sells them on the street for $20 ea. Compare with a scientific glass blower at $15/hr. Then factor in payroll taxes.

by ISL 8y ago

daodedickinson 8y ago

How was this funded in the past?

berbec 8y ago
More government research grants was likely a large part of it. The article mentions the heyday after WWII, referencing a flood of capital into the sciences.
ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
If you pay for multiple glass blowers at a University, then you can have a Master and an Apprentice. But you are paying for more blowing than you strictly need. If you pay for the exact amount of glass blowing you need, you will only have 1 glass blower per institution and there isn't room for apprenticeship. Seems like an easy fix would be a "Glass Blowers of Southern California" shop, where a few glass blowers could service USC, UCLA, and a couple other schools at the same time. That way you could still easily meet with the blower locally, but it wouldn't be on campus. Northern California wouldn't need a shop because Stanford, and Berkeley already have a bevy of glass blowing experts.
- ethbro 8y ago
  Or better yet, have apprentices at each institution, with a traveling master whose cost is shared across institutions. Apprentices take care of day-to-day work on their own, have oversight, and universities don't have to afford their own master glassblower.
  - lev99 8y ago
    Why are several apprentices and one traveling master better than a centralized group of glassblowers?
    - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
      I think he meant better in terms of long term sustainability of that skill set.
    - thefifthsetpin 8y ago
      One benefit would be the logistics of getting an apprentice's glass to an institution that needs it.
Someone 8y ago
Problem is that there was an entire industry that supplied glass blowers (for example, there was a time incandescent bulbs were hand-blown) If most of the glasswork in your lab has to be hand-made, you need dozens of people to do the job, junior personnel can be trained on the easier pieces, and the best of them can grow into experts making unica. Nowadays, there’s no need for junior glassblowers, so to get an expert, you’ll have to pay a candidate for years, possibly decades, without getting any benefits from it. Worse, there’s no guarantee that the person you hire will ever become good enough to do the job. Health and safety also may have made it more expensive. Glassblowing also isn’t the healthiest job. Burns and cuts go with the job, various fumes are toxic, there’s “glassblower’s cataract”, and it is heavy labor (e.g. when lifting a few kilograms of glass at the end of a pipe that’s meters long)

meko 8y ago

Perhaps the hobbyists who are trying to make a career blowing bongs and dab rigs will decide it's a good route to go legit.

rhombocombus 8y ago
That may sound cheeky, but I have seen incredibly skilled glasswork coming from today's pipe makers. I am sure there is a lot of overlap in technique at a certain level.
- iaw 8y ago
  There's either an article or a documentary detailing how some of the modern pipe glassblowing has its roots directly in scientific glass blowing. The one problem is they don't seem to need anywhere near the degree of precision.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    That is not quite accurate. It is actually quite demanding technically to make the artistic glassware like you see out there these days, and is a different set of skills than scientific glassblowing. Most scientific glassblowers have never worked with color, at all. It's almost funny to see what they do, compared to their skill with clear, which is extreme. Mike Gnann is admired within our artistic field and does well with both... https://www.instagram.com/merge_scientific https://www.instagram.com/merge_scientific But if you compare that with someone like https://www.instagram.com/eusheen https://www.instagram.com/eusheen who is at the top of the artistic pipe niche, I think you can see that there are equal amounts of precision involved. It matters where you're trying to fit in the market, of course. Someone can buy a torch, get rudimentary lessons and be making some sort of income from pipes within a year. You would be able to make some scientific glass items after six months, but not enough to get hired anywhere, except maybe in India (which is really the key here).
- apricot 8y ago
  (Points to a swan neck flask) You can put your WEED in there.

SilasX 8y ago

"Why? Why can't we find good glassblowers? Who is telling people they shouldn't take up jobs in the trades? What vile troublemaker is spreading this harmful rumor that the only viable career path is a university degree? Oh, hey, gotta speak at a high school in twenty minutes to promote education."

Gibbon1 8y ago

They are also spectacularly underpaid as well. For whatever reason I know a lot of a) Neon workers who used to do scientific glass blowing. But left because neon paid better. b) Glass workers that make glass pipes because it pays better than scientific glass blowing or neon work. Note: Potheads will spend in ordinate amounts of money on paraphernalia.

civilitty 8y ago
Note: Potheads will spend in ordinate amounts of money on paraphernalia. That's true but most of them spend inordinate amounts of money over a large number of pieces, which doesn't leave enough profit per piece to really support a skilled craftsman. Cannabis is already pretty expensive for a heavy smoker (1/8th of flower or 1g of concentrates a day is easily $30-40/day) and the aesthetic of cheap glass is good enough for the vast majority of people. Out of the dozens of heavy smokers I know in Washington, I'm the only one with any glass pieces worth over $1,000 and they are all practically indestructible so they get replaced at a rate of once every 4-5 years instead of every other month.
- Gibbon1 8y ago
  It's been a while but glass worker I knew said a simple pipe you can turn out in a few minutes. So 50-100 a day depending on how much boredom you can stand. You get about $5-10 each. Bonus cash business. Double bonus, your Hippie GF sells them on the street for $20 ea. Compare with a scientific glass blower at $15/hr. Then factor in payroll taxes.