FANTASY IN GLASS ACCUSES BULLSEYE GLASS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT FOR USE OF THE WORD 'GLASS'
Toronto, CANADA- Fantasy In Glass Owner Mikey filed suit in federal Supreme Court in Ottawa today accusing the Bullseye Glass Company of copyright infringement for widely using the word 'Glass' in the title and marketing of their products. FIG claims de facto exclusive legal use of the word. "We have established the strongest brand name in the history of modern civilization. Whenever someone sees the word 'Glass' they immediately think it should be preceded by the words 'Fantasy In' so we want to avoid any confusion amongst consumers", said company owner Mikey.
Attorneys for Bullseye had attempted to dispute the suit as 'frivolous' and weak efforts to placate the staff of Fantasy In Glass with Bullseye T-shirts and aprons have proved to be unsuccessful. As a result L.M. has agreed to allow Mikey to shamelessly promote Bullseye as a friendly, cooperative glass manufacturer who understands a free plug when they see one ....
So here's an inside look at the workings of Bullseye Glass, along with some prose and pretty pictures shamelessly taken from their site, with permission, and thanks to Lani and all at Bullseye-
The Mixing Room
Bullseye manufacturers thousands of products, from sheet glass to rods and stringers, to powders and frit and fractures, yet they all originally come from a palette of over 300 colours.
The process of manufacturing any one of these colours begins in this room where Bullseye mixes the raw materials that make up their artglass, called “batch”, in 55-gallon drums, and they do about 120 of them each day.
Looks pretty crude on one level (sort of like Mikey before 11 am… The Missus). On another level, the degree of precision required is staggering (like The Missus… Mikey). In measuring out the batch, a miscalculation as small as 50 parts per million can result in off-color glass. An error of 1/4 of one percent of sand or soda can result in incompatibility. Often there are as many as 18 ingredients in a single barrel.
I think that equates to over 1000 opportunities to muck up every day.
So how long and how much? From sand to a sheet of glass- that takes about 24 hours, and one barrel will make about 22 sheets…
The Screw Charger
Now imagine you’ve dashed past the mixing barrels and are darting across the hot shop floor, dodging guys running by with ladles of molten glass. Then you come face-to-face with this guy operating something that looks like a cross between a howitzer and a speculum. It’s called a screw charger. It’s used to feed the batch into the furnace. It takes about 90 seconds to charge the contents of a single barrel (350 lbs) into a furnace. We used to shovel the batch in by hand. The screw charger reduces dust and back aches. Each furnace will get charged 6-10 times during its 16-hour melt cycle.
After 16 hours of melting at about 2500F, the glass is ladled out of the tanks. By hand.
Bullseye manufacturers thousands of products, from sheet glass to rods and stringers, to powders and frit and fractures, yet they all originally come from a palette of over 300 colours.
The process of manufacturing any one of these colours begins in this room where Bullseye mixes the raw materials that make up their artglass, called “batch”, in 55-gallon drums, and they do about 120 of them each day.
Looks pretty crude on one level (sort of like Mikey before 11 am… The Missus). On another level, the degree of precision required is staggering (like The Missus… Mikey). In measuring out the batch, a miscalculation as small as 50 parts per million can result in off-color glass. An error of 1/4 of one percent of sand or soda can result in incompatibility. Often there are as many as 18 ingredients in a single barrel.
I think that equates to over 1000 opportunities to muck up every day.
So how long and how much? From sand to a sheet of glass- that takes about 24 hours, and one barrel will make about 22 sheets…
The Screw Charger
Now imagine you’ve dashed past the mixing barrels and are darting across the hot shop floor, dodging guys running by with ladles of molten glass. Then you come face-to-face with this guy operating something that looks like a cross between a howitzer and a speculum. It’s called a screw charger. It’s used to feed the batch into the furnace. It takes about 90 seconds to charge the contents of a single barrel (350 lbs) into a furnace. We used to shovel the batch in by hand. The screw charger reduces dust and back aches. Each furnace will get charged 6-10 times during its 16-hour melt cycle.
After 16 hours of melting at about 2500F, the glass is ladled out of the tanks. By hand.
The casters need to move fast. As it gives off heat, the glass starts to set up. It needs to get to the rolling table before it’s too stiff to roll easily.
Bullseye operates two styles of rolling tables. The single-roller (shown here) consists of a water cooled steel table and one roller that flattens the glass across its surface. A caster spreads the gob of glass across the table in front of the roller to insure even coverage. A single rolling table lets us make collage glasses like fracture-streamers, stringer glasses, etc., where the chips and/or threads of glass are composed on the table before the sheet is rolled.
On the second style of table, the double-roller, the glass is pressed between a pair of rollers, creating a sheet with more uniform top and bottom surfaces.
On the second style of table, the double-roller, the glass is pressed between a pair of rollers, creating a sheet with more uniform top and bottom surfaces.
More to come…
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