Topic: Thomas Webb — heat sensitive? — akin to Alexandrite?

[Lustrousstone]

and one to David as well I suppose, as he hankers after one. Hmm, the best I can do is to let you use them should you ever visit.

[chopin-liszt]

I get to fondle the lady's own personal "keeping one" when I visit - if I'm good. That will do me.
I can be vicarious about enjoying my glass.
I have fondled and studied it quite considerably already, every second of which is etched permanently in my brain.

Getting back to the "one pot only ever melted" theory,

How big were the pots?
What was their capacity, in litres or pints?

[flying free]

Sue I love your questions!  When I spent a day making the paperweight, thinking of exactly that question for this piece and also  the Mdina cobalt blue, I asked the guy ' how many pieces do you make from one pot' ? To which he replied 'well it depends how big or small the pieces are'      I thought it a perfectly reasonable question.#
If I'd have thought more quickly I'd have said, well one third medium,one third small and one third large - how many could you make in total?
m

[chopin-liszt]

My thick Mdina cobalt charger probably contains enough metal to make about 20 or more alexandrite glasses...

(and I'm suspecting that if there was only one pot, it must just about all be accounted for, by now.)

I was thinking about the "one pot only theory" there too. 

[Lustrousstone]

16 hundredweight sounds like a good answer or about 800 kg per pot. Page 84 if the link doesn't take you to the right place

[chopin-liszt]

Grrrrr, (  ) now we need to know the specific gravity of the different metals in order to work out volume.

Anybody know offhand?

And I thought the pots in studios were a lot smaller than the ones in factories?

(the link takes me straight to p84.  But it jumps to different pages when I try to scroll anywhere to read it all.)

[flying free]

Fantastic link - thanks
800kg  -
16hundredweight is  1792lb.

stupid questions coming up -
a) would 1792 lb of raw materials melt to 1792 lb of metal ready to use?
and
b) would a whole pot get used?

If so, and based on the fact that Webb Alexandrite pieces are very fine and quite light, that would mean quite few pieces could be made from one pot ... putting it mildly 
m

[flying free]

ok, Sue and I cross posted - I can see she has already been more thorough and technical in her questions than my rather basic calculation 

[chopin-liszt]

 
I'm worse than that.
I've recalculated.
800kg = 1763.6981lbs

[Lustrousstone]

Why do we need the volume? Thomas Webb was a factory. This particular one was Aspley Pallet's; the whole article looks worth a read.

a) would 1792 lb of raw materials melt to 1792 lb of metal ready to use?
and
b) would a whole pot get used?

Near enough; it's melting not reaction. Most likely most of it. 80% is possibly a good guess; say 75 with other losses and waste.

Four decimal places is a little silly...especially as the 16 cwt would be very nominal anyway.