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What is electroglazing? that FLW used for his SG

Reading book on FLW SG and see a blurb about how he used a (then new method) of electroglazing process to make his panels faster, tighter, and more weatherproof. The scant info implies that there is COPPER STRIPS (not came) set between the glass and then the whole loose fit assembly is put into an electrolytic bath and...presto..bango... you end up with a fully soldered and sealed panel.

Google gives a grand total of two hits for electroglazing with only superficial mentions of it.

Does anybody do SG like this nowdays? Is there a more common name for it now? How does commercial mass production do SG??

Jim

Reply to
joe doe
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By hiring very cheap workers who do as little soldering as the maker can get away with and still have the piece hold shape until it is sold.

Reply to
Mike Firth

I did not know FLW used this method. What book did you read this in? A guy named Belcher invented the technique when he worked for Luxfer Prisms in Chicago. FLW worked there too, for a short time. They wrapped the glass in copper strips (like today's copper foil method), then electroplated them a few times with zinc.

Reply to
vic

FLW Glass by Doreen Ehrlich Electroglazing mentioned a few times with Luxfer and FLW Then page 25 the book quotes a FLW letter to Talisman group where he talks about Dana House's SG

FLW was to recall the excitement of designing it (Dana house) and particularly of the new techniquees he had discovered which made the glass designs for the house so striking - he writes to Talisman Fellowship in 1952 "that was when I was most interested in it...when I found the means in Chicago - electroglazing where you could take a little copper strip and set it in between two pieces of cut glass - any pattern you wanted

- and by just sticking it there with solder ... then drop it into an electric bath, and the copper would attract from the bath enough more to seal the glass" Wright recalls the invention "Every house I did had it in evidence - esecially the Dana house and especially the Midway garden"

After I now reread the paragraph, it sounds like you still had to solder all the joints before the bath, and the electro bath just sealed it.

Book link

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Reply to
joe doe

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