Glassblowing Makes a Comeback in Science

R A H W A Y, N.J., Sept. 11, 2000 -- In a small room at the back of Merck’sgleaming corporate campus, the 2,000-year-old art of glassblowingthrives.

Here, glassblowers Wayne Dockery and Harold “Heimey” Heimbackwork with scientists to create devices that help develop the latestmedicines, as well as the first-ever automated tick feeder and aflea counter (for agricultural research) that allows only one fleato move through a passage at a time.

The flea counter, shaped somewhat like an hourglass, has anarrow “waist” blown to just the width of one flea. The tickfeeder allows scientists to nourish the insects without keeping alive animal in the lab.

Hot Enough to Melt Buttons

Nearly every flat surface in the shop is covered with fireproofmaterial, much of it blackened from years of exposure to openflames. The shop is warm much of the time, and — when the two areworking on a particularly large piece — the heat can bedestructive.

“It’s hot enough to melt your buttons,” said Dockery, addingthat he’s ruined several shirts that way over the years.

Like many glassblowing shops, the center of the room isdominated by a giant lathe that can hold pieces several feet indiameter. On a recent day in August, the device spun slowly understeadily decreasing heat to allow it to cool without cracking. Setup on countertops to the side are flame “lamps” used to worksmaller pieces.

The men and women who form and temper intricate equipment forchemists, biologists and other laboratory scientists say theirskills are increasingly in demand, as the pharmaceutical andbiotechnology industries grow.

The tricky part, they say, is finding workers with thecoordination and patience the job requires.

“It’s an art, and not everyone realizes it’s an art,” saidBill Robbins, production manager at Kontes glassblowers inVineland. “Not everyone gets to the top.”

Dawn Hodgkins, office manager at the American ScientificGlassblowers Society in Thomasville, N.C., said there are about2,500 scientific glassblowers in the country.

At the top of the profession of scientific glassblowing arecustom glassblowers — the people who can take scientists’ vagueideas for experiments and turn them into complex laboratoryequipment.

“A lot of times, they’re just blue-sky ideas,” said DarylSmith, a former Kontes glassblower who works at the nation’s onlyscientific glassblowing degree program, at Salem Community Collegein Carneys Point.

The Birth of Glassblowing

Dennis Briening, who works at the college and as a glassblowerat Hercules Incorporated in Wilmington, Del., said the process ofcreating an entirely new piece is among the most challenging aglassblower can face.

“You have a whole different approach,” he said. “You’re notlimited by previous experiences, so you can really brainstorm andfind new venues to reach your goals.”

The school is in the heart of southern New Jersey, whereglassblowing got its start in this country. In the late 18thcentury, the pure sand in Salem and Cumberland counties drewglassblowers to set up shop in the Vineland area. The schoolfollowed the teachers and the jobs, beginning the glassblowingprogram in 1959.

“They’re coming from all over, but most of them either start inthat area or they may move there to go to the school,” Hodgkinssaid.

Briening said the field is growing.

“I think there’s an increasing number of people that would liketo be glassblowers,” he said, “and I think there’s an increasingnumber of opportunities in glass.”

The college admits about 20 students each year into the two-yearprogram. In addition to the mechanics of glassblowing, they learnmath, physics, chemistry and computer sciences.

After graduating, students begin at the bottom rung ofglassblowing as lathe operators — production line work thatrequires making one item over and over.

“To attain top status, it takes eight to 10 years,” Smithsaid.

He went into the profession because the work is stable for thosewho are talented.

“It was a needed skill, so I changed my career path” fromenvironmental science, he said.

A Range of Salaries

What makes a good glassblower, in addition to patience, arecoordination and imagination, according to Smith and Robbins.

A glassblower can remain a lathe operator for an entire careeror move on to custom work — either for a company that sells catalogand custom-designed glass, or for university and corporatelaboratories, many of which have their own glassblowers.

Briening said glassblower salaries vary widely.

“You can go to whatever level you aspire to,” he said. “Youcan become an entrepreneur or you could work in a factory.”

At Merck, the two glassblowers have 65 years’ combinedexperience. Dockery, the chief glassblower, is the son of the manwho ran the shop for three decades.

Dockery and Heimback create and repair thousands of glass pieceseach year for Merck scientists around the world.

Chemist Herbert Conner, who works with Briening at Hercules,said he has used the work of custom glassblowers frequentlythroughout his career.

“Glass is a wonderful material to do chemistry [in] because itallows you to do fairly heroic chemistry and still see what you’redoing,” he said. “In the hands of a skilled glassmaker, it’spossible to do things with the containers that you cannot do usingother methods.”

Heat and glass can cause injuries, Robbins said.

Contributions to Science

“You’re working with fire and you’re working with glass, so therisk factors are high,” he said, but injuries happen lessfrequently than might be expected.

Heimback himself, after 28 years in the trade, displays scarsand burns on his hands and forearms.

Glass — which consists of sand and additives for heat resistance— acts like a solid, but has many of the properties of liquids.

“It’s actually flowing all the time,” Heimback said.

When glass is heated — to temperatures of 3,900 to 5,400 degreesFahrenheit — it begins to flow more quickly and becomes flexible.

“It wants to twist and turn and bend,” Heimback said. Becauseit’s cheap, easy to work with and clear, he added, “glass is aperfect research tool.”

Glassblowers created the first contact lenses and made possiblethe laser printer and the first semiconductor discs, Briening said.

At Merck, many of the pieces created by the glassblowers areunique.

While the more repetitious aspects of the trade have beenautomated, Smith said, most glassblowers aren’t afraid they willlose their jobs to machines.

“Philosophically, anything can be automated,” he said, adding,“You have companies that downsize. I’ve never seen them lay off aglassblower.”