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Mf Christensen Red Slags


mon

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mfc_gob_holder.jpg

Better image - with handle it measures about 14.5" long.

William J. Miller was a prolific inventor of ceramic and glass making equipment.

Looks like he was a Machinist for Hartford Empire Company at some point. Suppose he could have been involved with Phoenix Glass Co in 1883? I have an old check made out to Phoenix Glass Co that has a W J Miller signature on the back. That's why I was wondering if it was the same Miller.

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Road Dog,

Here is a link to an old glass publication with an article about William J. Miller.

National Glass Budget, September 18, 1915.

As you scroll down to continue reading on page 12, please take note of the Miller advertisements.

He took out a prominent ad for his shearing device on the top half of page 7.

https://books.google.com/books?id=EfpYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT294&lpg=PT294&dq=william+j+miller+move+to+columbus+from+coffeyville&source=bl&ots=WdFzDsL2aB&sig=eCmdF28kbFQWZ6UfB9V8VWdddG0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mY6uVJOrMcGOyASpy4KYCg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=william%20j%20miller%20move%20to%20columbus%20from%20coffeyville&f=false

Also, in one of Miller's advertisements he claims a breadth of equipment for making things as small as marbles up to 6-foot glass caskets.

The glass casket is from his time in Coffeyville, Kansas.

If you want creepy, then visit the glass museum at Wheaton Village.

They have a child's glass casket on display.

Imagine how heavy that was!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13183

I believe there is a patent for this "novelty".

https://www.google.com/patents/US1326765?dq=glass+casket+miller&hl=en&sa=X&ei=npSuVK29Nc-vyAT-k4HQBw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBg

Enjoy!

John McCormick

"Shamrock Marbles"

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Mon,

The MFC auto released worked.

However, it worked so good that the marble never got to cool before being ejected.

What I thought was interesting is why they didn't swap the wheel positions versus changing sprockets.

The video I posted was from Thursday evening of Marble Crazy 2014 after Cathy Richardson's demo.

I had just re-assembled the machine that afternoon and everything was out of adjustment.

(I took the machine apart to fit in my van for a trip to Mark Matthews' studio in Sauder Village.)

The clear marbles are test marbles.

We did them so I could adjust the machine and Larry/Brett could judge gob size.

It was then that we determined to target 1.25" diameter.

The finished marbles were no more than +/-0.005" out of round.

(Not perfect, but good enough.)

The rounder the marble; the smoother it ran.

Sincerely,

John McCormick

"Shamrock Marbles"

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Mon,

The MFC auto released worked.

However, it worked so good that the marble never got to cool before being ejected.

What I thought was interesting is why they didn't swap the wheel positions versus changing sprockets.

Yeah, that's round enough! Not sure I understand "swap the wheel position" line?

Lol, worked so good so good it was bad. It looked to me that it seated nicely when hot but bounced more as it cooled or maybe it was just the sound that gave me that impression. Did you have any marbles with teats? It would be interesting to see you throw it in from a cup......thanks again

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Mon,

MFC Patent 802,495
Lines 89-94
Roller H is purposely larger or of greater diameter than roller G, and for this reason is
the master roll or roller of the pair, dominating roller G by means of its greater peripheral
speed and at last controlling the discharge of the Ball or sphere O, as will he seen.

The original patent/design was to have the larger roller (higher peripheral speed) drive down the marble through the working point, while the smaller (lower peripheral speed) wheel was lifting up at the working point.
There is no description stating the sprocket-to-sprocket ratio in the patent.

If they wanted to stop the driving down action, then they could have easily swapped positions of the rollers.
Put the larger one where the smaller roller was, and visa versa.

However, they chose to leave the forming wheels in their original positions and put a smaller sprocket on the smaller wheel.

Anyhow,...


Yes, I have teats!

Shamrock - Lemon #1

Shamrock - Lemon #2

This is what happens when the peripheral speed of the lifting wheel is not sufficient enough to overcome the peripheral speed of the downward wheel combined with gravity.
Additionally, the gob did not turn on axis because the "teats" on each end acted like out-riggers.
Notice the chevron twist?
Sincerely,
John McCormick
"Shamrock Marbles"
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I found a few more pages in other folders...less relevant to the topic, perhaps, but may be of some interest to the other marble history nerds here...

12_zps9c18866d.jpg

13_zpsc88470c9.jpg

14_zpsca3711f0.jpg

15_zpsf664e92e.jpg

16_zpscf3f46a1.jpg

this page could go after the last group, a few pages back...

87_zpsa9046236.jpg

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MFC made no transparent red slags - red slags are made from selenium ruby glass - this was not common till the mid 1920's.

Sorry all....my leg was sore from kicking this dead horse but I have to ask........what is "this was not common till the mid 1920's" based on? Not that I don't believe it's true!

Also, with a few companies having a MFC machine and a hand gathering process for sure at all, is it important to call these slags for what they are? Are standard colored slags just hand gathered slags with no definite maker?

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........what is "this was not common till the mid 1920's" based on? Not that I don't believe it's true!

Maybe one of the real Glass People will come back and answer that (I hope so), but just from what I remember from reading about it (from glass books, not marble books), selenium exists in only trace amounts in a few rare minerals, and wasn't discovered until the early 1800s as an accidental red precipitate (I remember the phrase because I liked it!) during the production of something . . . what was it? I think it was sulfuric acid. People started fooling around with it to see what it could do, but it was expensive and difficult to extract. Eventually they discovered an easier way to extract it, at about the time chemists were also finding out it had some weird properties, like being photosensitive, and a good electrical conductor. So it was used first commercially in things other than glass. Apparently its ability to both decolorize and turn glass red just wasn't economically feasible for a while. The glass chemist given credit for producing the first really commercial selenium red glass was Henry Hellmers, Akro's glass chemist, while he was working at Cambridge glass (yes, that Cambridge Glass), around 1930-1931.

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