kimerajamm
Joined: 28 Nov 2010
Posts: 785
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 Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:52 am Post subject: Redmont came up |
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After several dozen glass manufacturing firms were interviewed, L. E. Smith Glass Company emerged as the company to produce 22,500 glass blocks near the upper limit of the size of press glass formed from hand-poured molten glass and cast iron molds.[36] The process used sand and soda ash heated to a temperature of 2,600 °F (1,430 °C) and "gathered" with a large clay ball resembling a honey dipper. Rather than use a standard plunger to ensure the glass that sagged off the rod spread to the corners of the mold, they relied on gravity. The full mold was annealed (reheated in an oven to 1,100 °F (593 °C)) and cooled.[37] Over the course of four months of production,[38] about 350 blocks were produced per day.[37]
The glass was custom-made at a factory in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and was fitted into small sections of the frame. Each section was shipped by truck from this plant in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, with approximately seven sections per tower face. The glass is white glass, rather than the usual green glass that results from iron impurities. This has the tradeoff of increased image clarity, but greater dirt visibility. Each block is 5 inches by 10 inches by 2 inches (13 cm × 25 cm × 5.1 cm) with glass thin enough to avoid image distortion. On each block, one of the six faces is polished, and the other five surfaces are textured.[2][35]
The structure for the blocks was a challenge. At first, the design team had considered switching to plastic blocks, until the team found Circle-Redmont Inc., a prefabricated glass panel company in Melbourne, Florida which specializes in structural glass panel systems and has supplied structural glass sidewalk panels for the New York City Subway system. Circle-Redmont came up with the plan of turning grates on their sides to be used as building elements.[38] The individual grids are 5 feet (1.5 m) tall and either 16 feet (4.9 m) or 23 feet (7.0 m) wide with cell capacity of an average of 250 blocks.[38] Each tower is composed of 44 grids stacked and welded.[38] The combination of the refraction of the glass and the thinness of the metal make the grid virtually invisible.[38]
Norelco 1290X
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