# "Orange peel" effect



## Wheelah23 (Nov 9, 2011)

I didn't really know where to post this, but I guess it'd fit on the historic glass website, so I'll post it here... [&:]

 What causes this "orange peel" effect which I'm sure we've all seen? Is it a type of whittle? The only two bottles I have that exhibit it so pronouncedly are, oddly enough, both local tooled crowns that date from 1910-1915, I estimate. Even the older bottles I have do not have this effect. Maybe these crowns were blown at a certain glasshouse that was not good at eliminating the orange peel texture? I really don't know how to explain it.


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## Wheelah23 (Nov 9, 2011)

other one


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## AntiqueMeds (Nov 9, 2011)

could be a number of things,
 the texture of the iron used in the mold,
 the cold iron ripple effect if the mold isnt up to temperature,
 iron molds get worn and pitted as they are used.


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## RED Matthews (Jan 18, 2013)

Regarding orange peal.  If the bottle is an ABM product, one thing that can be considered is the use of dry powder sulfur powder, picked up on a wire handled cotton string swab.  This practice got started on the early glass machines and was done whenever the man running the machine, felt that the glass was not releasing from the mold smoothly or tended to stick when the when the mold opened to have the take-out jaw pick up the bottle.
 Another thing they did with these cotton swabs, was to have one setting in a can of swabbing oil.  Here again if the glass wasn't releasing right from the mold, this would help the proper release.  The operators would often take the next bottle out of the mold and through it down the cullet chute which dunked it in a water tank in the basement under the machines, and the pieces were sent to the batch house for addition to the batch material.  Culled is an important addition to the glass batch material.  When the batch material is worked into the glass melting furnace, cullet would drop into the melt and help blend the new materials in the furnace tank.
 Just some more TMI for your reading.  RED Matthews


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## Asterx (Jan 18, 2013)

> If the bottle is an ABM product


 Both look BIM to me but hard to tell. I have a few bottles that have this effect only on the bottom 1/2 or 1/3rd of the bottle and are also sodas/beers. Its a good question...


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## georgeoj (Jan 19, 2013)

I have seen this condition in both jars and bottles. It can be isolated to a small area or, as in the picture, it can cover an entire jar/bottle. A comment by Red on another post, some time ago, got me to examine several jars with the condition. It does look like coating the surface of a sticking mold could be the answer to most/all of these. This could have been a practice by individual glass blowers for any length of time.  George


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## RED Matthews (Jan 19, 2013)

Thanks George,  I know that this practice was well established and used on all kinds of glass machine bottle making.  When I went to work at Thatcher's; they used it on the HMB and all the IS machines.  There were several companies that sold the swabs and the mold lubricating oils.  I know that a lot of the operators would discard the early glass when this was done.  I also know that When the production glass was inspected before packing - the girls threw out a lot of glass for this reason.  When they went to inspection machinery, that looked for bird-swings and spikes, and otjer defects - a lot went to cullet. 

 When I went into my own sales company  MATTHEWS TECHNICAL SALES; I traveled all over the world going to seminars, and all the glass houses I could get to, to sell special alloy's to them.  At one time I had all the glass companies identified with letter codes and over 3,000 peoples names in my computer.  I was selling special metal orifice rings of one alloy that would control the gob diameter for a much longer time than the earlier plain ceramic orifice rings.  From there we supplied delivery through  segments, and all the mold parts touching the glass on the machine including the take-out jaws and the dead plates, that even had the path of the bottle sweep out duplicated in the surface grooves the bottles followed on those dead plates.  At one time Borden's gave recognition to the Ball Glass for this glass ware quality.  It was all a satisfying experience.  

 The assignments of work included a lot of different subjects, the solutions provided a lot of experience and successful corrections kept me into it.  So here I am trying to help people where I can to make the appreciation of America's first industry still a successful thing.  ( Aand I am down on beer and soda in plastic bottles - my car even has a bumper sticker *"Only The Best Comes In Glass"*.


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## Dugbottles (Jan 19, 2013)

It looks like the jar has ice covering Cool


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## epackage (Feb 12, 2013)

Orange peel to the nth degree due to soil conditions....


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## PanamaBottleBoy (Sep 29, 2015)

*Re:  RE: "Orange peel" effect*

Good Info RED! i appreciate your post and the wealth of info you share with us! Thanks.


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