Glass Message Board

Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Max on September 10, 2007, 10:09:12 AM

Title: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Max on September 10, 2007, 10:09:12 AM
Who can guess the purpose of this item?  It's not something readily available, so you'll have to get your thinking caps on, unless some brain-box knows immediately!

It weighs just over 5kg, and is approximately 27cm in diameter.  Interestingly, it's hollow inside, but sealed completely.  It has a singular purpose, and a definite place that it would be used.  Who can tell me what it is, and then the company that made it?   :)

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8425
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8426
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8424
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8423
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8422

Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: josordoni on September 10, 2007, 10:53:45 AM
Is it for condensing water when you are lost in the desert?  you put it in a little hollow in the hot sand and the water condenses on the top and falls down into the rim?

 :o

( I think I watch Ray Mears too much....)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Anne on September 10, 2007, 11:41:39 AM
Max, my first thought is some type of decklight to be set into a deck to allow light into a below deck space?
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Anne E.B. on September 10, 2007, 04:03:53 PM
A window for a small submersible  ;D ;)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: johnphilip on September 10, 2007, 04:13:31 PM
A spitoon, for getting your own back .Made by the aussie spitoon and glass boomerang company .Digger john alias brucy.
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Frank on September 10, 2007, 07:40:30 PM
Washing machine door.

They outsourced that particular model.
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Bernard C on September 10, 2007, 07:46:41 PM
It's a Keep-it-Cold wine or beer bottle holder.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Bernard C on September 10, 2007, 07:48:15 PM
It's a snail trap.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Bernard C on September 10, 2007, 07:51:15 PM
No it's not, it's a beef tomato mould for sandwich bars.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Sklounion on September 10, 2007, 07:55:51 PM
Banqueting hall.....
Chuck it in the freezer, when absolutely encrusted with ice, remove, and add large quantity of caviar..... stays cold for hours......
Regards,
M
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Sklounion on September 10, 2007, 07:57:39 PM
Grush Kristalny, and others????
Marcus
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Bernard C on September 10, 2007, 07:58:07 PM
It's an Eskimo's baby training potty.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Anne E.B. on September 10, 2007, 08:07:32 PM
Ashtray for a HEAVY smoker ;)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: johnphilip on September 10, 2007, 08:10:07 PM
Its for reducing swellings, you put ice in the bottom and then sit in it ,i cant spell haemorroids.
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Adam on September 10, 2007, 08:14:03 PM
It's an airfield runway light, set into the ground and strong enough to be run over.  This example looks very like the ones we made at Davidsons in a semi-heat resisting glass for Holophane.

Adam D.
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Corner-House on September 10, 2007, 08:34:57 PM
A Light-house lense?
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Max on September 10, 2007, 09:11:05 PM
 :D  I went out for the day and came back to some very strange ideas on this object...I rather liked submersible window, it does have that look, doesn't it?  Also pretty useful as a spitoon, but I don't think I'd fancy it used for piles to be honest...  :o

Well, bah humbug.  Someone's got it right, although they've got the wrong company.  ;) Well done Adam, although it's cheating a bit as you knew and didn't guess.  >:D ;)  It IS an airfield landing light and it's marked 'Holophane', I think that gives Adam double-points!   :hiclp:

So, if Davidsons didn't make this particular item, then who did?  :D

Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Frank on September 10, 2007, 09:50:12 PM
If not Holophane, then Joblings, Moncrieff or Nazeing.

By the way it is not an airfield landing light, cover or lens perhaps but just a component.
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: David E on September 10, 2007, 10:07:14 PM
Airfield landing light? :o

Darn it, too late... ;D
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Frank on September 10, 2007, 10:11:41 PM
(http://www.debook.com/gifs/Mailbangin.gif)
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Max on September 10, 2007, 10:26:54 PM
 ::)  Well, yes, it's only the cover...but 'airfield landing light' is really just a convenient term to call it.  I suppose lens or cover for airborne-vehicles-runway-lighting-apparatus might be more suitable.   ;)

So anyway Frank.  You've made three guesses there, but you can only choose one from that list.  Which one is it to be?  ^-^





Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: josordoni on September 11, 2007, 07:52:18 AM
(http://www.debook.com/gifs/Mailbangin.gif)

Quick everyone.... BUNDLE!!!!!

Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Frank on September 11, 2007, 08:17:43 AM
Had it been Moncrieff you would have told me before, Nazeing and you would be calling Stephen so I plump for Jobling. Of course there are a few others that do work for Holophane  :angel:
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Max on September 11, 2007, 10:35:16 AM
Well, that just shows how one can be foiled Frank.  ;)  It's not by Jobling or Moncrieff...and probably I didn't mention this one was 'hot off the press' - it's not second-hand.   ;)

This is by Nazeing  and was kindly donated as my Mystery Object by Stephen P-H last Saturday.  :hiclp:  Thanks Stephen!   :D


Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Frank on September 11, 2007, 10:58:14 AM
Is it signed Nazeing? You should be careful to avoid assumption  >:D
Title: Re: Mystery Object
Post by: Max on September 11, 2007, 11:49:21 AM
Actually the complete wording impressed on it is 'Holophane HG 493', so I suppose it could be Holmegaard. >:D ;)

It was an interesting factory tour actually, really great to see pressing going on - traffic light lenses were being made at the time.  I itched to have a set of those!  Also, there was a long table full of old moulds & correlating items which were made from them, that was quite thrilling to see.  I think I'll put those on another thread later today.  :)

Funny really, I'm really into architectural and industrial glass these days.  Maybe I get worried that glass history for those items could be lost due to lack of interest?  Still, with Nazeing's Glass Museum, some of the 20th Centurys' 'ordinary' and factory glass should be preserved now.



Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 11, 2007, 04:58:51 PM
That's good to hear Max. I'm also very interested in the industrial side of glass making, but I don't suppose there are any photos of the tour?

It was strictly verboten at Pilks the other day... :-X
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Adam on September 11, 2007, 07:43:14 PM
Who said Davidsons didn't make this one?  I was being a little conservative in saying that it looked like ours.  It's identical.  Unless Holophane managed to find someone else to make them after Davidsons finished (I assume here that Holophane kept going) then it really is Davidsons.

Davidsons made a lot of many different bits of lighting ware for Holophane.  Typically four pots out of around twenty would be devoted to some of the five special compositions for Holophane.

Adam D.
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Max on September 11, 2007, 08:38:05 PM
Hi Adam.  This particular one is definitely Nazeing Glass, I know because I fished it out of a bin of identical style seconds/imperfects at Nazeing during a factory tour just last Saturday.   :)

However....the mould (or the original mould at least) could have been from Davidsons, so maybe that's what you are thinking of?  In effect, I suppose it could be an identical piece, but this one was made last week at Nazeing.   ;) >:D

David:  Yes, I've got some nice photo's - a really cool one of a piano caster and it's own mould.  I was strangely thrilled to see that...and photo's of them pressing the traffic light lenses too.  ::swoon::
I should get out more...   ^-^




Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: ChrisStewart on September 11, 2007, 08:39:52 PM
Hi,

If this was made by Davidson, then it is post war. I've checked the production records for the 1930s and this style number was not listed. The highest 'HG' number was 239.

Glassware for Holophane was also made by Chance.

Regards

Chris
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Frank on September 11, 2007, 09:26:48 PM
Max don't worry, traffic lights are pretty, we have a complete set including housing here  :) I can understand the excitement you felt... imagine when I got my first pieces of Gauge glass - scroll down to the first non-catalogue image to see them here http://www.ysartglass.com/Moncrieff/Moncrieffgauge1.htm

Yet to find a good method of display.
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 11, 2007, 09:34:48 PM
Nice glass there - I like that paperweight as well!

I have some archive photos (black & white) of headlamp lenses being pressed, and also the automatic welding of the fronts of cathode ray tubes (TV tubes), which was an evil-looking machine :o

So I'd like to see those photos if at all possible :ac1:
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Adam on September 12, 2007, 06:50:43 PM
Max, sorry I wasn't contradicting you, somehow I didn't see your confirmation of Nazeing before my last posting.  That answers very neatly my comment that, UNLESS someone else had taken over Holophane jobs then it was Davidson.  As Pollock-Hill senior would certainly have been aware of, and probably seen our Holophane production then it isn't surprising that the work ended up there.  I had assumed, without checking, that Holophane had vanished like nearly everyone else whom I once knew!

Adam D.
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Max on September 12, 2007, 08:36:56 PM
Quote
I had assumed, without checking, that Holophane had vanished like nearly everyone else whom I once knew!

Ahh...well, at least Holophane is still doing well Adam!  Maybe the simplest designs are the best and have most longevity?  Perhaps you could take a factory tour at Nazeing, some items could be a real blast from the past for you.  :D  I don't know why, but I thought you worked at Sowerby's, not Davidsons...I don't know where I got that assumption from.   :-[  :-\

Andy McConnell told me an anecdote about Nazeing Glass collecting a whole lot of moulds from Sowerby - apparently they were transported back to Nazeing in a flat bed lorry.  Tragically, the lorry tyres met a pothole whilst in transit, the lorry shuddered, the floor gave way and the whole load of moulds fell out onto the motorway...

 :o

Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Bernard C on September 13, 2007, 03:42:56 AM
Quote from: Max
... I don't know why, but I thought you worked at Sowerby's, not Davidsons...I don't know where I got that assumption from. ...

Understandable, Max, as Dodds is possibly the third most frequently met surname in Cottle, after Sowerby and Crane.   It was Adam's grandfather who introduced Sowerby's Tynesyde glass in the late '20s.   His unique career spanned all three glassworks, Sowerby, Davidson and Jobling.   Collectors particularly associate Adam with Davidson's Briar (aka Topaz Cloud).

Quote from: Max
... Andy McConnell told me an anecdote about Nazeing Glass collecting a whole lot of moulds from Sowerby - apparently they were transported back to Nazeing in a flat bed lorry.  Tragically, the lorry tyres met a pothole whilst in transit, the lorry shuddered, the floor gave way and the whole load of moulds fell out onto the motorway ...

To misquote the Australian barmaid at the start of Crocodile Dundee, that story gets better every time I hear it.   The original, in Cottle, is probably too long to quote here without permission, but has a furniture lorry as its star player, no tyres, no potholes, no shuddering, and no motorways.   I hope Andy McConnell's books are as much fun as his anecdotes, and that his publisher has left nice big margins for pencilled notes.  >:D

This is just one of the two lorry anecdotes.   The other was related by Adam in an earlier GMB, sadly now lost, and involved Davidson collecting the last of the flint (non-Pyrex) moulds from Jobling in the early '60s.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Max on September 13, 2007, 09:51:40 AM
Ooh Bernard, I just laughed and dribbled tea on my trousers!  :-[ :cry:

Well, maybe the lorry/moulds thing is just getting better with the passing years...a bit like me.   ;) 

If I pass that anecdote on anywhere else, I think I'll add something to it, and see if it's relayed back to me at some point.  Maybe I'll have a swarm of bees nesting in one of the moulds, escaping into the lorry drivers cabin and rendering him blinded....thereby crashing...moulds fall out on motorway...blah blah....  ;D



Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 13, 2007, 12:59:33 PM
Chinese whispers - a famous one ferom the first world war was:

Send reinforcements we're going to advance.

after much repeating became,

Send two-and-six, we're going to a dance. ;)

Perhaps Adam could reprise his original anecdote? Providing it doesn't involve two-and-sixpence as well!  :D
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Adam on September 13, 2007, 08:58:13 PM
Max - Press moulds are very, very heavy! 

David - The story to which Bernard refers wasn't really comical at all, but here goes.  I moved from Davidson to Jobling in 1961, just a few months after Jobling had stopped all non-"Pyrex" production, i.e closed down what they called their Flint Factory, which was really just a department.  Jobling didn't mess about and would want everything cleared out.  Some time in the following year or so I was walking across the yard and saw Davidson's old Bedford tipper which was collecting Jobling moulds.  I only mentioned this on the GMB because there had been some doubt expressed as to where Jobling moulds had gone.  I think what amused Bernard was that I said I had talked to the driver but that I was more interested in the old wagon (which I knew well) than in the moulds.  I had put that part of my career behind me and industrial archaeology had hardly been thought of.

The reason I knew the wagon so well does perhaps give an insight into the run-down state of Davidsons while I was there.  Although the wagon was only used for maybe a couple of times a week, mainly to take rubbish to the tip, it had a full time driver (typical of one of many causes of our problems).  He died suddenly and it was decided not to replace him.  We had a labourer who had been taught to drive our crane and it was decided that he could do both driving jobs, apart from the detail that he had never even driven a car!  I was the only person in the company who had driven anything bigger than a car and being young and daft I volunteered for the job of teaching this chap on the Bedford.  There were no HGV licences in those days.  A powerful incentive was of course that, until he passed his test I had to do the tip runs myself!  I'm proud to say that he passed first time and I was able to go back full time to being production manager!

The Bedford was pretty well beat-up long before I got my hands on it, but hopefully the bottom didn't fall out on the way back from Joblings that day.

Anne - Is there no way now of putting a two line potted biography on our profile?  On the old board I had my employment history, which saved time sometimes when replying to queries.

Adam D.
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Anne on September 13, 2007, 11:08:27 PM
Quote from: Adam
Anne - Is there no way now of putting a two line potted biography on our profile?  On the old board I had my employment history, which saved time sometimes when replying to queries.

Yes indeed Adam, click the tab above the forum called Profile. Once in Profile click the Forum Profile Information link under the Modify Profile heading. That shows the info which is publicly available about you on the board. You can add your two line potted bio either as your Signature or into the Personal Text box, or have something in both.  Does that help?
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Bernard C on September 13, 2007, 11:51:26 PM
Adam — Many thanks for your memories — really appreciated.   I look forward to more.

Further to Anne's information, the Personal Text box gives you one line immediately below your "England" on the left, maximum about 50 characters, with no control by you over line breaks.   So you could use this for something like "Retired HGV Instructor" or whatever.   The Signature box appears below each reply and gives you 256 characters and more control, as you can use normal line breaks and bbcode to enhance and position the text, in the same way as posted messages.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: selina on September 14, 2007, 12:32:19 AM
After reading all these posts...I didnt really care what the item ended up being :) But I so enjoyed all the guesses and the subsequent history!

I will be looking at all glass items a little differently now as I forget that they have a practical use generally and not just aesthetic.

Trudy
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: ChrisStewart on September 14, 2007, 07:23:03 AM

Send two-and-six, we're going to a dance. ;)


Shouldn't  that be three-and-fourpence?

Chris
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 14, 2007, 07:46:05 AM
Er, yes, I think it probably should be! Can't think why I've got that stuck in my mind wrongly... must be thinking of something else... :-[
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: josordoni on September 14, 2007, 08:56:17 AM
Maybe you only went to cheap dances??   >:D
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 14, 2007, 08:58:45 AM
I don't dance! :mus:
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: David E on September 14, 2007, 09:05:33 AM

Send two-and-six, we're going to a dance. ;)


Shouldn't  that be three-and-fourpence?

Chris
That's inflation for you! ;D
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Max on September 14, 2007, 09:19:57 AM
Adam said:
Quote
I had put that part of my career behind me and industrial archaeology had hardly been thought of.

Umm...it's funny how those things that aren't so important at the time become worthy of consideration after the history is almost lost!  Golly, that was a long sentence, did it make sense?  :)

Thanks for writing your experience down Adam.  It all seems a bit strange, getting the production manager to do the tip runs.  Who was looking after the production line while you were out?  Dare I ask!   :o

I suppose that's how companies used to be run, none of the run-a-tight-ship and economic strategies we have now?  But as you intimated, maybe those reasons were part of the overall decline of Davidsons. 

Anyway.  I must say that my story about the moulds/motorway was about Sowerby in 1972.  Is there a remote chance it might be true, or has it all become mixed up with the parlous state of Davidson's Bedford lorry somehow? 

:::can feel Bernard typing furiously 'No no no no no!'::::
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Bernard C on September 14, 2007, 09:46:00 AM
Quote from: Max
... I must say that my story about the moulds/motorway was about Sowerby in 1972.  Is there a remote chance it might be true, or has it all become mixed up with the parlous state of Davidson's Bedford lorry somehow? 

:::can feel Bernard typing furiously 'No no no no no!'::::

Max — No no no no no!   The two lorry anecdotes are quite separate.   The Sowerby/Nazeing/furniture lorry/moulds strewn across the road anecdote is in Cottle, and was told to Simon Cottle by Harry Hutchinson, a former Sowerby employee.   Adam, do you remember him?

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: Mystery Object ...from Nazeing
Post by: Adam on September 15, 2007, 10:58:48 AM
Anne - thanks for that: you will see what I've done.

Max - Davidson (and Sowerby) production normally was carried out on two shifts, 6-2 and 2-10.  Each had a foreman who was more than capable of handling any immediate problems!  I was annointed production manager quite late in my time at Davidsons - the first job title I had had at either place (that was how we worked - everyone mucked in at whatever was needed).  The "appointment" didn't make a scrap of difference either money-wise or to what I had been doing anyway.

Bernard - yes, I knew Harry very well.  He was inspection foreman (or words to that effect - see above) and also our first-aider.  He was well qualified at both jobs, having been a young, skilled glassmaker pre-war and then a sick bay attendant in the Navy, during which he was awarded the DCM.  I remember him attending our only fatal accident in my time, nothing to do with glass, someone fell through a roof.  He was the only qualified glassmaker on Sowerbys' staff.

That last point brings up a little-known fact, for which I have no explanation at all.  The production foremen at Sowerbys had started out either as labourers or semi-skilled assistants whereas at Davidson they had all been skilled glassmakers.  Indeed, while I was at D., a vacancy arose and Tom Barton (GM - my boss) made the brave decision to appoint by far our best presser specialising in big Holophane jobs (still on thread!!) as foreman for the long-term gain in spite of the short-term production loss.  The strong glassmakers' union meant that, once a man was appointed to management he could not even touch a glass-making tool.  For the historians, this was Charlie Tulip, who quickly became a trusted friend and colleague.

Max - this is your thread and it seems to be getting a bit off topic in spite of my valiant effort in the last para!  I'm not clever enough to split threads, but if you or anyone want sort this out it's fine by me!