Forging a future for glassblowing
Creating scientific instruments is a rare but highly desirable skill
‘People don’t realise that when you heat glass up, suddenly gravity comes in,’ chuckles Phillip Sliwoski, from the University of Southern California (USC), US. ‘Glass flows and it wants to drop in your lap. That’s a quick reality check.’
Scientific glassblowing conjures many romantic images, but Sliwoski is quick to shatter illusions about the skills he’s developed over 37 years in the craft. ‘I don’t make things from scratch,’ he stresses. ‘I could theoretically make you a lightbulb. Mine would probably last for 10 seconds before it burned out – or you could go to the local hardware store and buy one for 50 cents that lasts forever.’
His comment brings to mind a question often asked today: in our age of mass production and automation, where do human skills fit? It’s a particularly apt question for scientific glassblowing. The craft involves extreme specialisation in arcane abilities – like redirecting molten glass away from laps – while offering relatively few employment opportunities. How, then, is it possible to ensure there are still capable scientific glassblowers for institutions that do want to employ them?