The Glass Menagerie

Over the period of a week, I have seen the glass making process of some of  the remaining glass factories in WV  and Ohio.  I have filmed segments of these processes at the glass blowing factory of  Blenko Glass in Milton, WV,  at the sheet glass factory Paul Wissbach in Paden City, WV, and at the pressed glass factory of Mosser Glass in Cambridge, Ohio.  The segments that I am showing you in the videos below would have been repeated multiples times through out the work day and show processes that were designed to produce the same product every time .  As you watch the videos, compare the processes of each factory and answer these questions.

1. How are these processes from the three different companies alike? How are they different?

2. Why do you think this process has developed in this manner over the many years that each company has been creating glass in their three unique ways.

3.  Do you think this process could be used or is used in the formation of any other products with which you may be familiar?  Explain your answer.

4. Who was Henry Ford and how might he be related to this line of questioning?



Blown Away By Blenko from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.


Paul Wissbach Glass from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.


Mossier Glass from Wendy Chapman on Vimeo.

After we discuss your answers the the questions above we will do an activity that will help us to better appreciate the processes that we are observing in the glass manufacturing videos. Please read over the instructions to familiarize yourself with the tasks you may be asked to perform.

Lesson Plan: Students will be split into 4 equally sized groups.  Two groups will be assembly lines, two groups will be individual workers. 

 

Each assembly line will do the following:

1.  Assign a specific task to each worker in each assembly line so that the final product can be made.  A suggestion of how the tasks can be broken down for an assembly line of 8 people is as follows: First two people count out 5 sheets of paper each (one counts out colored paper and the other counts out plain paper), the third arranges the stack of papers to be alternating in color (plain, colored, plain, colored… etc.), the fourth lines up papers into a nice stack, fifth measures out 1 meter long ribbon, sixth ties ribbon around stack of paper with knot, seventh ties nice bow using the extra ribbon, eighth person takes stack and arranges it on table and keeps count of how many stacks have been made.

2.   The tasks can be distributed among more or fewer individuals depending on how many people are in each assembly line.

3.   Each assembly line will line up with the proper materials at the correct positions on the assembly line.

4.   When the individual workers are ready also, the teacher will tell everyone to begin.