Glass Menagerie, Owen Kingsbury
This article describes Owen Kingsbury's scientific glassblowing. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Holster, Joy. "Glass Menagerie," ECU Magazine, Winter 1988, Volume 2, No. 1.
Owen Kingsbury doesn't start his day facing backlogged paperwork and ringing telephones.As ECU's first and only scientific glassblower, he is more likely to spend his time creating complex laboratory equipment from elaborate drawings and descriptions.
Although the chemistry department buys stock items like flasks and test tubes for use in labs, it's more economical for Kingsbury to make all specialized glassware.
"I made 20 of these," Kingsbury says, referring to a complicated piece called a trap. "If you had to buy them they'd cost maybe $15 or $20 apiece. It only took me an hour."
Kingsbury prides himself on his large inventory of parts. "Whatever they want, I can make," he says.
In a storage room down the hall, and in cabinets located just outside his shop, he keeps "all tubing from 2mm up to 5 1/2 inches," and parts like ground joints, stopcocks, and glass valves, "from the smallest size to the largest."
Kingsbury's most indispensable tool is his lathe, which turns the glass but allows freedom of his hands.To join two pieces of tubing, he places the pieces on the lathe and starts the fires.Only when the glass reaches a certain temperature can the tubes be fused.
The amount of heat needed to work with glass depends on the size of the piece, Kingsbury says.On a piece of tubing about one to two inches in diameter, he heats the glass from 1200 to 1300 degrees Celsius.
He also uses the lathe to make openings in glassware. While blowing through an air tube, he heats only the spot where the hole is to be made. Because glass is a poor heat conductor, only the heated area responds when air is blown into the cylinder. Air is forced into the tube, forming a bubble on the heated area. The bubble is then popped open to create the opening.
Later he might fill the hole with a smaller piece of tubing or whatever equipment has been requested and splice the pieces together under fire.
Working with glass under fire causes a "strain" on the glass which he removes when the job is completed -- either with a high temperature flame or an oven.Remvoing the strain returns the glass to its original strength and prevents breakage, Kingsbury says.
One job he recently completed was a distillation apparatus with an inserted thermometer.Previously the department had been using a cork to stabilize the thermometer.Problems with the cork included burning, leakage and reduced vision for the thermometer reading.
Kingsbury devised a method to stabilize the thermometer using glass, eliminating the problems students had with the cork.He made 24 of these for laboratory use.
"I never know what's coming up," he says. "Somebody will come over and say, 'Owen, can you make this?' Then I look at what he wants and make it."
Another aspect of his work, and one he especially enjoys, is providing demonstrations to students ranging from first grade through college. He also provides programs for civic meetings when requested.
He has a portable supply of all the equipment needed for a demonstration "ready to pack in the trunk of the car and go." When he travels to schools, Kingsbury makes gifts for the students. One of his favorites is a glass mouse designed from a tiny piece of tubing.
He especially enjoys demonstrating for young children and special groups like the handicapped who are most fascinated by his work. "You can't help but love them," he says. "They're so appreciative."
To ward off potential accidents with older children, Kingsbury lets them know in advance the dangers involved. "I'll take a piece of glass I've just finished heating, but it has no flame. I take out a piece of paper and touch it to the glass. It starts on fire, so they don't come near it. Then they know how hot it is."
Kingsbury also teaches glassblowing to inorganic chemistry lab students at ECU. And he works occasionally with students from other departments.
His liaison with other departments began when an art student came to him with an idea for a project. Kingsbury admitted he couldn't make her a glassblower overnight, but showed her the fundamentals. "Her hands worked beautifully," he says. "She was good."
Kingsbury is one of nine glassblowers in the state -- three work exclusively on university campuses at Duke, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The others are employed with private industries in areas like Cary, Charolotte and Greensboro.
He has been interviewed on television numerous times and was featured in January as The News and Observer's Tar Heel of the Week.
Kingsbury first entered the glassblowing field in 1951 while working in Schenectady, N.Y., at G.E. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, a division of General Electric Company.He had been a laboratory technician about a year when one of the glassblowers quit.
The job was first offered to other staff members, but no one would accept because it meant taking a cut in pay.Kingsbury, however, was "willing to lose a couple of dollars an hour for the chance to learn something new."
He joined the apprentice program and has been a scientific glassblower ever since, holding jobs at Vanderbilt University and Union Carbide Company in Oak Ridge, Tenn., before coming to ECU in 1970.
Although Kingsbury once vowed never to return to North Carolina -- as a Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune in 1945, the New Jersey native was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity -- he was drawn to ECU because of the upcoming medical school.
Now he enjoys the solitude of small-town living. "When I go north for business, I can wait to get back here where it's quiet," he says.
Aside from his work at the university, where he serves as faculty advisor of the Circle K Club, Kingsbury stays busy in community affairs as an active member of the Presbyterian Church, the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion.
But the activity which takes up most of his leisure time is the American Scientific Glassblowing Society (ASGS).Kingsbury was just elected president for 1987-88, the first ASGS president ever from the state of North Carolina.
As the society's 25th president, he oversees 15 sections throughout the United States and Canada and serves on the board of directors. He works with each section's comittees to provide an ongoing source of assistance to all glassblowers on new techniques and equipment.
He's also serving as national audio/visual chairman, maintaining inventory and managing requests for the society's extensive videotape library of glassblowing techniques.
The primary function of the society is to provide fellow glassblowers with information, primarily through workshops, seminars and symposiums. "These are created just for the people who never get a chance to do every kind of glasswork," he says. "So if you've got something new we can help."
Kingsbury has served the ASGS in a number of positions since he joined in 1954 -- in the southeast section as secretary, treasurer, chairman, vice chairman, and nationally as secretary for the board of directors, audio/visual chairman and president-elect.
He and his wife, Audrey, have two children, John Eric and Karen Lynne.
