Up: Glassmaking
Flat Glass: 29 of 66
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swung out into the "swing hole" in such a manner as to
make it completely cylindrical to the end (Fig. 5).
The blowpipe with the completed
cylinder still attached by the neck is next passed to
the "snapper" who removes the pipe by touching a cold
iron to the glass close to the point of the pear-shaped
neck or cap. The cap is then cut off by applying a thread
of hot molten glass around the cylinder at the shoulder and
again applying a cold iron (Fig. 6). The completed cylinder,
thus produced, is split open longitudinally by passing a
hot iron back and forth along the inside and subsequently
applying a cold iron. Cylinders thus formed vary in size
from twelve inches in diameter by fifty inches in length to
twenty inches in diameter and seventy inches in length.
The cracked open cylinder in this
form is then ready for the "flattening process"-- another
very difficult and highly skilled step in
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