Historical Photo of the Month - June 2005

JPL Glass Shop
Photograph Number P-15417A

From 1962 to 1978, Hermann Heyn worked as a glass blower for JPL, creating a variety of intricate and specialized shapes for use in scientific instruments and spacecraft. Taking the ideas and sketches of JPL chemists, physicists and engineers, Heyn modified pre-manufactured cylinders, tubes, and flasks, or created new objects from molten glass to construct any kind of apparatus they needed. He made a variety of glass parts for vacuum systems, pumps, valves, lasers, lamps, etc. Many of the glass objects were made of Pyrex. When greater heat resistance was required, he used quartz, which melts at about 1,800ºC. Heyn also designed and made most of the specialized tools he needed to work with glass.

In 1964, 1967, and 1975, three different articles appeared in Lab-Oratory, the JPL employee newspaper, about the JPL Glass Shop and the artisans who worked there. The articles provide more information about Heyn's training, the materials used in glass blowing, and the variety of specialized glass objects created for JPL. The Glass Blowing Lab still exists in building 18, as part of the Prototype Sheet Metal and R&D Technician Services Group (3755). The last resident glass blower, Juergen Linke, worked at JPL for 27 years and retired in January 2005. A replacement has not yet been hired.

For more information about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives.

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