Tank Wash

[Fire1981]

I some some Jabos on Ebay that were listed as Tank Wash. What does that mean ? 

[wvrons]

It means that they were made the day or evening before a special investor run. Almost all were 5/8 or 9/16 size.  They were usually small numbers maybe from one hundred to five hundred pounds.  

[Alan]

The "concept" is emptying the glass tank of most of it's contents for a different batch of glass.

In practical reality, it was used somewhat as a euphemism for something else related to accounting.

[Fire1981]

Thank you ! What separates this from an End of Run ?

[wvrons]

Tank wash are marbles made before a special investor run the next day. I guess end of run would be near the end of a run. Most times at the end of a run the colors are running out and the marbles are plain mostly just base glass.  First it depends on what a run is or what run ?  Most special investor runs at Jabo were 2000lbs. of glass. At the end of most all special investor runs, once the time usually 10-12 hrs. or the 2000lbs. was reached. The Striping colors were stopped being added. Once the colors left and it was just mainly base glass. The 3/4 inch marble machine was pulled out from under the furnace and a 5/8 or 9/16 marble machine was put back in place under the furnace. Then the normal scheduled production began again. If it was game marbles, industrial marbles or what ever the need. What I would consider end of run marbles, would be plain or discolored non desirable marbles. They were always discarded as scrap. Unless you were present in person, how would you know what the last marbles made, end of run were ? A run might be days, weeks, or months. A end of run might be when a problem happend and equipment had to be stopped and repaired. End of run statement for machine made marbles is a big blank or ? unless you were present in person and seen them. Because every end of run could be very different. But all actual end of run marbles would be most likely be discarded and not anything sellable. Once you stop adding colors to base glass, it might take five minutes or twenty minutes for the colors to leave. At 250 per minute that is a lot of marbles and lots of variation all along the fading disappearing colors.  So os end of run when the colors addition is stopped, or the last one hundred, or the last ten marbles, or the last marble ?  Big separation from Tank Wash to End of Run.  Tank wash at Jabo was a small batch or marbles made almost always the day or evening before the special investor run. 

Tank wash at Champion Agate was a completely different thing.  But you ask about Jabo tank wash. 

End of run for machine made marbles, sounds nothing more than a sales pitch to me. Unless the actual seller was there in person to see and get the last marbles made for some particular time frame.  There are probably as many false sales pitches as truthful ones.  Buy the marble not a false story.   

[Fire1981]

WOW ! Once again I really appreciate all of your insight. How many marbles can one expect to get out of a ton of glass. Or is that just too hard to figure out and this is a crazy question ?