Optical Department: Two Pot Furnace

Image: Photo taken about 1940. This two pot furnace accommodated 38” diameter covered pots. The furnace number is either 32 or 33. The tease hole side of the furnace is shown with one door partly raised and shows the regenerative furnace fired by raw producer gas. This is the side of furnace on which the empty pot is set and the full pot withdrawn. The operations of filling the pot, stirring the glass and tending the melt are done from the other side of furnace. The hole shown in each tease hole door is for temperature checking and enables the teaser to get a good idea as to the condition of the furnace firing. Doors are operated by hand chains through a series of gear wheels and chain wheels with counterbalance weights in caves. The door is constructed with Stein’s 42% alumina low spalling refractory bricks. The original furnace was built in 1916 when tease holes were built by hand and broken down manually for each pot change, but modifications have been made since that date.

Image from: Chance Brothers Glassworks, Smethwick Slides. Broadfield House Glass Museum, Kingswinford, Dudley (Slide and Transcript no 2 by Arthur Reeves).