Bottle Collections Chat

[DeepDown]

HI Red, Yeah, I been to your page a few times. Mainly reading.. Seen all the comments from people. And Sign in area. Just never figured out how to make a user name to sign in.. lol I'll have to go back and look for it. Yeah, I been collecting the Fruit Jars. Mainly the 1858 & 1908 Pat ones But other old ones too. Stumbled on a lot of them while in woods helping my brother get scrap metal. Brought some home, washed the up, and feel in love them.. So was going back getting and hunting them all down and older bottles (1890's to 1920 finding lots of. But to many have knicks, chips & harder to clean). So I still favor the old fruit jars + mainly of them was made in Indiana.

 

[RED Matthews]

Hello to you DeepDown. I welcome new collecting interest. It is different for many people. I am into it for the methods used by the people that made glass in all the stages of the hand made methods. I lived in the engineering of modern glass making. Mainly those that could find advantages of performance and cost savings from the improvement of the mold component made by the HR-metal that hardened when the hot glass made contact with it. Dameron Alloy ws trhe answer to the tasks. I marketed as Matthews Technical Sales Co. and traveled the world to glass making conventions, seminars and all the glass companies engineering meetings I could go to. My better half was my secretary and book keeper, and it was a great life we had. She did the touristy things while I worked at telling glass people what our metals could do for them. RED M.

 

[RED Matthews]

So John DeereMoxie, I first saw them make milk bottles at Thatcher Glass when I was about 9 or 10 years old. My Grandfather took me there to let them show me h0w it was done. A Fantastic Experience I will never forget. They were being made on a vertical rotating HMB machine. They explained the whole process, the annealing and when I saw how they loaded them in box cars - it blew my mind. They laid then on their sides between wooden cross racks in straw. There could be several dairy customers bottles in each box car. Delivery went to the dariy's town and the farmers had to go get their bottles when it was near their locatiom. It was before cardboard boxes I guess. I went to work for that same comp[any 35 years later as an engineer in their Central Mold Shop. Ironic history. RED M.

 

[RED Matthews]

To deepdown, I talked with someone today that told me about the glass house with that big production success with high speed operation on their glass machine. It is Ball Glass[at Muncie and for reasons unknown they have slowed the machine speed to 740 bpm. There are obviously very successful in performance. I guess I am not supposed to relate too much information on the application, because their success is being sheltered. I do know that the metal making contact with the hot glass is very closely related to the alloy I traveled the world selling, after I left Thatcher's. Things come around and go around. The first castings of that metal, I had made at a foundry in Syracuse N Y. It isn't exactly the same, but the importance is evident. All I can do - is smile!!!! RED M.

 

[DeepDown]

HI RED,Thanks for the info. That is good to hear it is Ball Glass. Just because I lived over there for almost 20 yrs. Good to hear to they still doing great. Atleast sounds that way. --- Any time you are part of somethings importance that is still used today. Like making the glass. You have to be proud and smile.. I would be.. Without it, who knows where we would be on making glass. I think that is very cool.

 

[Dcravosa]

Hi Red - to follow up on a question that John Deere Moxie asked - and I might have missed the response. What generally happened to the molds after the production was done or if the manufacturer went out if business?

 

[RED Matthews]

For JohnDeereMoxie. The molds were usually returned to the foundry and melted up in their furnace for re-use making new mold equipment castings, They are hard to come up with. I didn't know i would be on a forum like this in later life or ai would have had a couple hundred of them stacked in my garage. What I have kept are special testing examples of my work in developing mold engineering changes. RED Matthews

 

[RED Matthews]

'So guys - I just ran on to oe of the original blow and blow plunger tip castings that I had made at a foundry in "Syracuse NY. I think there name was Gray. I ended up with about 40 B & B plungers with a cast iron base and these high nickel castings for the tip that fits inside the neck ring and guide ring of a blow and blow plunger. After the initial few days of operation we couldn't find a one of them. About a month later we found out that the machine operators had them in their dinner buckets in their lockers. The did better numbers of bottles on their shift using them. So the next order we made was for almost a thousand of them, which we machined up and sent to our other plants for their evaluation. From that experience we started making guide rings and other parts with this metal. It grew and grew in applications after that. I ended up developing a source and got myself established as the marketing agent and traveled the world selling the glass industry on using this metal for various components of mold equipment. We also ended up making a lot of different castings in the investmentfoundry method of different components for improved performance - up to the point that Ball Corporation used our metal for every part that touched the glass on one of their Gerber Baby Food items; and they received a special praise for their products from them. Satisfying success for anyone's ego. RED Matthews

 

[RED Matthews]

So I am having limited success with my current blog creations. APPLIED HANDLES and PASTE TURNED MOLDING OF GLASS BOTTLES. The computer isn't cooperating. RED M.

 

[RED Matthews]

Well 'Dave: I wondered if you have any wax ring jars. Jars are an interesting thing to collect and study. From the making methods, to the components required to make them. i have enough to represent a lot of the stages of development in their making. But all I can say, is that if you have any questions, feel free to lay them on me. RED Matthews