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My name is Harald Wolfgang Eberhardt.
I'm the University of Michigan College
of Engineering research glassblower,
and I build all the toys for the professors
and the graduate students. My training started at the age of 14.
My father asked me "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
and I said, "I'm taking auto mechanics, carpentry..."
So he says, "Why don't you learn glassblowing?"
I said "Sure dad, when?"
He says, "After you've done your homework and on weekends."
I thought I was going to pass out,
because work was not in my vocabulary at the age of 18.
But when he showed me money, then I became interested.
It's not how long it takes to make
something or how complicated it is. The question is, does it work?
All glassblowing starts--artistically or scientifically--
everything is being made from tubes.
Everything takes its time, and there are no shortcuts.
You must follow a certain procedure.
When I make something that is custom-made,
first of all there's no faith whether it's going to work or not.
Then I have to make the prototype. Will it work?
Then adjustments are being made to make it work.
Then finally it's successful, and they say,
"Harald, it works. Make more."
This is a "finger condenser,"
and it has an internal piece with a tip on the bottom so when there's
a condensate coming down that the student is interested in,
we can either take it back into the flask and re-boil it,
or he can turn it in the other direction so that it runs this way,
and here's a condenser that chills this product,
and here he takes the sample.
These are all catalog items. Joints, to allow two pieces of glass to come together.
Precision ground, vacuum tight, water tight, as you can see.
I'm going to heat this up over 2000 degrees centigrade,
because that's the melting temperature of quartz.
And look what happens.
This glass is used for high-temperature work,
for making jet turbine blades, engines.
And watch, I'm going to put it into water.
It's the only glass on this planet that can go from
2000 degrees to freezing without shattering.
And so therefore here at the university
40% of my work is quartz-based.
So I'm using propane and oxygen to create a fire
of approximately 1200 degrees centigrade.
And as you can see I'm getting no heat transmission to my hand;
I get more radiation from the fire against my face and my body.
You see I have to rotate constantly to counteract for gravity.
Gravity is my third hand. It either works with me or against me.
In order to expand glass, I use my own breath.
It's like blowing bubblegum. No big blowing from the chest.
Without glassblowing capabilities,
the entire research community could be compromised.
I mean, I'm a little wheel.
But if you take a little wheel out of a watch,
the big wheels don't rotate in order to make things happen.
So when something is finished,
the job satisfaction of having created something
with your own hands cannot be measured.