got a mystery here

unclemac · Oct 15, 2017

a friend of mine has been following this on a beach glass site she is a member of. the poster says it weighs 200 lbs. and they had to drag it up an (ocean) cliff with a winch. it is cylindrical, is is glass, not slag, has a dimple on the top and yes, that is an apple for comparison.

any ideas as to what this is?

smokeythecat · Oct 15, 2017

A very cool thing. Was there a glass foundry nearby. Could be the end of a "melt" which was discarded.

unclemac · Oct 15, 2017

no foundry nearby, have no idea if it is a remnant.

Tpmetal · Oct 15, 2017

The accomplishment to anneal something that thick would be like over a month easy. Wtf is that?

Tpmetal · Oct 15, 2017

Any cracks running through it?

digger460 · Oct 16, 2017

What is that :icon_scratch:

unclemac · Oct 16, 2017

Tpmetal said:
Any cracks running through it?

no cracks...lots of aparent beach/sand abrasion...one fellow who looked at it discribed it as purpose made and high quality.

Tpmetal · Oct 16, 2017

Not being cracked I would say it was purposely made. A piece of glass that size would not survive being made without slowly cooling(annealing). So they wouldn't have gone through that trouble if it was cast off or end of a melt. The dimple is probably from when it was all hot during casting and as it shrank when it cools, it pulls that dimple into the forum. What it is for, I have no idea. As for all the wrinkled surface texture I'm not sure whats going on there, could be a few things. Could have been cast at a colder temp not quite smoothing the edges, could be texture from what ever mould was used, could be from shrinkage in the process.

TommyB · Oct 16, 2017

That may be cool to have all the edges polished out. Result may be a huge clear glass table or seat.
Cool find !!!

sandchip · Oct 16, 2017

Nautical lens or window that would be subject to high pressure? Very cool find, for sure.

unclemac · Oct 16, 2017

sandchip said:
Nautical lens or window that would be subject to high pressure? Very cool find, for sure.

boy howdy...that would be some pretty fantastic high pressure....

bloovey · Oct 16, 2017

awesome find, very interesting, is it natural or man made?

unclemac · Oct 16, 2017

man made for sure

Plumbata · Oct 17, 2017

I agree with TPmetal, with the dimple/concavity and apparent cooling lines on the sides I doubt it was created for any other purpose but to be re-melted. My hunch is that it was a glass "ingot", probably a special blend of glass like a proprietary leaded crystal or other specialty glass that most manufacturers wouldn't have been able to make, cast into this crucible-friendly form and supplied to smaller-scale manufacturers of glassware or art glass. Being big and heavy and inconveniently sized for purposes aside from efficient shipping suggests it may be a European import.

digger460 · Oct 17, 2017

TommyB said:
That may be cool to have all the edges polished out. Result may be a huge clear glass table or seat.
Cool find !!!

Might want to re-enforce the floor tho :laughing7:

That would be a nice table for sure!

Tpmetal · Oct 17, 2017

Plumbata said:
I agree with TPmetal, with the dimple/concavity and apparent cooling lines on the sides I doubt it was created for any other purpose but to be re-melted. My hunch is that it was a glass "ingot", probably a special blend of glass like a proprietary leaded crystal or other specialty glass that most manufacturers wouldn't have been able to make, cast into this crucible-friendly form and supplied to smaller-scale manufacturers of glassware or art glass. Being big and heavy and inconveniently sized for purposes aside from efficient shipping suggests it may be a European import.

There no point in making a glass ingot as it will crack and break with out annealing. Glass is shipped in cullet, basically smashed up glass chunks or small clipped pieces from a furnace. To cost to anneal each ingot that large would make it pointless to do. There seems no reason to make it that big in one piece unless it had a use.