Portrait of a scientific glassblower
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- For the past 16 years, Jim Breen, the highly-skilled artisan, has created glass apparatuses and other vessels for Berkeley researchers - not just those in chemistry, but in engineering, earth and planetary science, physics and other fields.
Breen, who’s blown glass for about 40 years, is one of a dwindling number of scientific glassblowers in the United States. Fifty years ago, the American Scientific Glassblowers Society had roughly 1,000 members; for the past 25 years, the number’s circled 500. But Breen says only about 50 work at colleges or universities.
To read the full story, visit: news.berkeley....
Video by Stephen McNally
Music: "Eureka" by Huma Huma, "The Sun is Scheduled to Come Out Tomorrow" by Chris Zabriskie, and "Flickering" by Yven
news.berkeley.edu/
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I've been interested in scientific glass blowing as my research department recently lost their glassblower, this video was very inspiring!
I’ve done this for a year after my high school. My grand father is an expert of this work and he’s the one who taught me glassblowing. It’s bittersweet to realise that I left this art due my passion for filmmaking but Man! Watching this put men in such a nostalgic vibe!
Brings back memories of being a chemistry student at UC Berkeley in the late 1970s and hearing the occasional vacuum lines blow up in the inorganic chemistry labs during lectures from one of the best professors at UC Berkeley, namely Kenneth Raymond. I went on too become an organic chemistry in medicinal chemistry, but glassblowers are very important to chemical sciences and were always admired and respected where ever I did research.
Love Ken Raymond!
@@Smedley1947 No it was leaks in the vacuum line that allowed oxygen to come into contact with pyrophoric air sensitive inorganic compounds, boom!
As a 30-year scientific glassblower I have repaired many a vacuum/ inert gas manifold, and innumerable schlenk flasks.
@@Smedley1947 very nice I always loved the glass blowers
I love the movie type music and the raw passion in this video.
Such an unbelievable and rare skill. I salute you one craftsman to another!
Fun fact: the only institution in the US that offers a certificate in Scientific Glassblowing is Salem Community College in New Jersey.
UPDATE: Salem Community College is in discussions with local legislators and the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education in further pursuit of this degree program.
says the website itself, hopefully it can remain as the last one because i dont want to say now there is none :(
Meh. Salem is only a 2 year degree, while there are more than a dozen institutions that feature courses in scientific glass. I reckon several of which would allow one to make some kind of major out of it.
What's that say about the industry? It means that it's small, and that accredited programs are not that important. I sincerely doubt that the majority of companies in need of a scientific glassblowers do their hiring exclusively from Salem grads. Sure, Salem is great- but it's probably all about having a good portfolio demonstrating proficiency.
Great video Jim....... love what you do....
Been there , done that. Tosoh. Quartz Portland Oregon. I assembled from start to finish , 300 mm wafer boats 27.000$ a pop !! Got laid off ! My dream job 😎
Such an unbelievable and rare skill. Are you matter.
This is great and important aspect
This man needs an apprentice. We can lose these important trades.
I agree, but one of the most lovely things about science is that, even if it’s lost, the fundamentals that make it work like it does will never change.
It can always be rediscovered.
Scientific glass blowing isn't just knowledge, it's a skill set that is not easily mastered even if you can theoretically figure out 'how to do it'. The ancient Etruscan skill of solderless soldering used to decorate things with gold *granulation was lost for a thousand years. Finally took a chemist to figure it out. Melting point depression. I'll let you look it up.
*Granulation consists of affixing tiny spherules of gold to Gold substrate to decorate jewelry, some of the tiny spheres are a hundredth of an inch diameter. I've been a scientific glass blower glass for 30 years and making jewelry for 25. Never tried my hand at granulation.
Sadly, very few people want to use their hands anymore. I tried several times to train people to help me at my scientific glass blowing shop but most people simply have neither the desire nor the ability to work with their hands using fire. None of them lasted over 3 months. Frankly I think they were all more interested in making pipes than scientific glass blowing.
When people use the term “pedestrian” you know right away they are full of themselves . The his guy is a no one in the scientific glass community .
Yeah that term was uncomfortable for everyone else, but this guy is not a nobody. The ASGS is a small community and this man is an esteemed and venerable member. You don't get to stick around at Berkeley that long if you're a nobody in your industry.
Yeah, making testtubes and other standard glassware is an extreme waste of time! Those are mass products....
Clearly you have no knowledge of the scientific glass "community" whatsoever. You know why he said that ? Because EVERY time I tell somebody that I'm a scientific glass blower they always say, oh so you make beakers and test tubes? I always reply, 'it's a little more complicated than that because that test tubes and beakers are made by the millions•••• by machines'. You probably think there's thousands of scientific glass blowers, probably because you even don't even know the difference between scientific glass blowing and art glass blowing or bong makers. So, •••••do you? As of today there are 650 members of the American Scientific Glassblowing Society of which I am one. Of those 650 members probably fully half of them are retired. So that means, for the entire United States there is something on the order of only 3 or 4 hundred scientific glass blowers practicing our skills in the field. Now, I'd be the first to admit that I'm a little full of myself because I'm doing something that DAMN few people can do. This is not something you learn in a few weeks or months or even years . Making scientific apparatus for universities and research labs involves skills and knowledge you can't even imagine. And I'm a nobody so to speak, because I run my own glass shop doing work for the universities and labs in my very technologically oriented state and nobody's ever heard of me. I'm one of only 3 scientific glassblower in this state. This man has been working for a famous and prestigious University for over 60 years. Believe me, he's somebody. He's probably made lab ware for a handful of Nobel Prize winners. He has made apparati that would look at home on a science fiction movie set. But he's a nobody. Go back to your games and basement, Keyboard Warrior, let the masters of Fire and Pyrex get back to work.
On the other hand, a guy who has a kitten feeding video on his channel can't be all bad, not only do I blow glass, I've had 17 cats in my life, I'm 76 years old, still making laboratory glassware, but I'm down to one cat.
@@Smedley1947this was just me being a bad mental health state a few years back