Getting Rid of the Pink
by Randy Bly

During the Color of Smoke Crystal discussion we had some fun with the tale of our photo’s of Smoke being haunted with this pink cast. This reminded me of a funny story about Carder sometimes trying to get rid of a pink tint to his actual glassware. On occasion the glass in the pot would pick up a greenish tint from iron impurities in the sand.

The solution to this was to add manganese to the molten glass. If you added just a little too much manganese to the pot the glass would pick up this pinkish tint. Carder would then holler “Stick the pot with a withy pole”. They would then take a freshly cut pole about two inches in diameter and about five feet long they had cut from Willows from the bank of the nearby Chemung River and poke it into the pot of molten glass. The gasses escaping from the freshly cut wood would take the pink out of the batch of glass. Problem then was they would have to wait about a half hour for the bubbles to get out of the glass. It was either that or get busy making some bubbly glass.

Apparently a true story. I chuckle at the fact a much as a scientist as Carder was I guess he had a few backyard methods of his own and also was being haunted with a tinge of pink.

Maybe I should “whack my camera with a withy pole”.

Rande Bly
Birmingham, Alabama
May 31, 2010