Digging at the Whitall Tatum factory?

Philadelphia museum of art

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ORIGINAL: KentOhio

I read a glassblower's diary once. It was from the late 1860s. Unfortunately it contained no glass secrets. All it had was when he woke up each day, how the weather was, and I think he went to a dance one Saturday night and played baseball another day.
I have some molds and have experimented with them a little. I've used aluminum and iron. The aluminum mold I used three times to make a bottle with a rest of about 20 minutes in-between each bottle. Each turned out better than the last, each time with less whittle and more definition to the design. The iron mold I used three times to press an object, with about 5 minutes of rest in-between each piece. The first was whittled and didn't fill completely, the second was pretty good, and the third looked the best but nearly stuck to the mold. I have the impression in my mind that molds need to be the right temperature between too chilled with no detail, and too hot where the glass sticks. Iron pontils, after all, are iron too, that's stuck to the glass.
I read somewhere that Fenton's snap cases were brushed with lime to prevent sticking.
I also saw a patent from the 1880s or so where someone had the idea to have a core of graphite-rich iron as the interior of a cast iron mold.
Molds of the 1850s seem to have been thin like the Coventry mold but iron like later molds. The Philadelphia museum of art has some on its website, if you search. They have a Jenny Lind mold, barrel bitters, booze, and some others I remember.

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(in reply to kungfufighter)
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ORIGINAL: KentOhio

I read a glassblower's diary once. It was from the late 1860s. Unfortunately it contained no glass secrets. All it had was when he woke up each day, how the weather was, and I think he went to a dance one Saturday night and played baseball another day.
I have some molds and have experimented with them a little. I've used aluminum and iron. The aluminum mold I used three times to make a bottle with a rest of about 20 minutes in-between each bottle. Each turned out better than the last, each time with less whittle and more definition to the design. The iron mold I used three times to press an object, with about 5 minutes of rest in-between each piece. The first was whittled and didn't fill completely, the second was pretty good, and the third looked the best but nearly stuck to the mold. I have the impression in my mind that molds need to be the right temperature between too chilled with no detail, and too hot where the glass sticks. Iron pontils, after all, are iron too, that's stuck to the glass.
I read somewhere that Fenton's snap cases were brushed with lime to prevent sticking.
I also saw a patent from the 1880s or so where someone had the idea to have a core of graphite-rich iron as the interior of a cast iron mold.
Molds of the 1850s seem to have been thin like the Coventry mold but iron like later molds. The Philadelphia museum of art has some on its website, if you search. They have a Jenny Lind mold, barrel bitters, booze, and some others I remember.

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ORIGINAL: KentOhio

Here's the base. It's still a pretty badly made bottle, haha, but neat nonetheless.

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Here's the third bottle made, the one with the best impression.

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