Use of Glass Apparatus in the Laboratory and in Industry

Abstract

THE past fifteen years have seen a revolution in the uses of glass apparatus both in the laboratory and in industrial plants. In particular, the adoption in the laboratory of standardized ground-glass joints has provided an alternative to old arrays of corks and rubber tubing. Quickfit and Quartz, Ltd., started to produce such equipment in 1934 on the initiative or Sir Graham Cunningham, chairman of Triplex Safety Glass Co., and until 1946 the works were wholly situated in the factory of the Triplex Co. at King's Norton, Birmingham. Quickfit and Quartz, Ltd., made gradual headway until 1939, and then, with the advent of the War, the abrupt cessation of laboratory supplies from Germany coupled with the greatly increased needs of research caused the output to go up ten-fold. Fur at Stone in Staffordshire, which is now in production, and extensions are contemplated. With large pieces other expansion at King's Norton being impossible, in 1946 a new works was started glassware the question of annealing is extremely important, and special continuous-tunnel annealing-chambers are used, with polariscopes for viewing the strain contours by polarized light. The adoption by industry of glass for use in engineering plant was almost entirely a war-tune development; but the value of glass in large condensers, heat-interchanges and for piping corrosive liquids, etc., is now universally recognized. Besides its use in the laboratory, glass has definitely taken its place as an important material in the whole field of engineering. The shop for production of industrial plant at Stone is only in part production, and the bulk of this work is still done at King's Norton.