Scientific glassblowing

Scientific glassblowing is a specialty field of glass blowing used in industry, science, art and design. Scientific glassblowing has been used in chemical, pharmaceutical, electronic and physics research including Galileo’s thermometer, Thomas Edison’s light bulb, and vacuum tubes used in early radio, TV and computers. More recently, the field has helped advance fiber optics, lasers, atomic and subatomic particle research, advanced communications development and semiconductors. The field combined hand skills using lathes and torches with modern computer assisted furnaces, diamond grinding and lapping machines, lasers and ultra-sonic mills.

Notable scientific glassblowers

• Rudolph Beyer
• John Calley (engineer)
• Clarence Madison Dally (killed by X-ray exposure in the course of his work)
• Heinrich Geißler (invented the Geissler tube)
• William Holdsworth (Australian politician)
• Jorg Meyer
• Mitsugi Ohno
• Joseph Patrick Slattery (radiography pioneer blew much of his own lab glassware)

American Scientific Glassblowers Society

The American Scientific Glassblowers Society (ASGS) is an association for scientific glassblowers and provides continuing education programs.

External links

• Video of scientific glassblowing at Arizona State University