Blowing and Spinning Crown Glass

In Redhouse Glassworks at Stourbridge, England, Anthony Cummings of the National Glass Centre Sunderland demonstrates the method of making 'crown glass'. Such glass was originally the main source for flat planes of glass for windows, which explains why many old windows have a 'bull's eye' in the middle. A lump of glass is blown, re-heated and then having been transferred from the original blowing tool to another, is spun. Centrifugal force turns it into a thin sheet of circular glass.

movie file size: 4MB.

shot on 5th March, 1999. Camera: Chris Morphet.