# TOOL MADE FROM A BROKEN BOTTLE



## Harry Pristis (Apr 4, 2004)

This is an interesting use for a broken bottle. 

 Below is a pic of a "thumbnail" scraper made from the shoulder of a black glass bottle.  ("Scraper" understates the effectiveness of this razor-sharp tool.)  There are tiny pressure flakes from use around the edge of the tool.

 This is an "Indian" artifact found while poking around the area of a fort built adjacent to a Seminole Indian settlement.  The Seminoles had taken over the site of an aboriginal Timucuan Indian town.

 The aboriginal town, called Cuscowilla, is located in Northcentral Florida.  By 1710, Cuscowilla was in decline as a result of disease, slave raids, and war between Spanish and English.  There are no more Timucuans.

 At the same time, Creek Indians fleeing the British in Georgia and South Carolina began moving into North Florida.  The Indians and runaway slaves (who were fleeing everyone) coalesced into a new group dubbed "Seminoles."

 By the time the United States bought Florida in 1818, the townsite of Cuscowilla hosted a significant settlement of Seminoles.

 In 1821 a fort was built near the Seminole settlement to keep the Indians pacified.  (A series of Seminole Wars broke out anyway.)  

 Indian artifacts made from bottle-glass are usually referred to the Seminole period, but it is difficult to date such a tool when found out of context (this was a surface find in a kitchen garden).  

 Judging from the contour, this glass came from the shoulder of a cylinder bottle.  This could indicate an age of anywhere from 1740.  

 The best guess, though, is that the bottle-glass dates to the fort period 1820s to 1840s.  The fort would have had a suttler's store, and black glass bottles would have been readily available.

 For perspective, it is much easier to find a 5,000 year old spear-point in Florida than it is to find a Seminole artifact from the early period.

 ---------Harry Pristis


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## Gunsmoke47 (Apr 4, 2004)

Hi Harry,  that is a very interesting find and quite astute of you to recognize that piece of broken bottle for what it is. Most people would see it and just assume it to be a shard. Has the edge been *worked* all the way around akin to a flint scraper or are the chips a result from mere useage? It makes one wonder what the Indians would have used to form this tool. Did they find that glass worked better than flint, or was it just a simpler means to an end result? I wonder how many other artifacts like this one are out there being walked over every day because someone thinks it's just an old shard of broken bottle? Happy Diggin, Kelley


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## Harry Pristis (Apr 4, 2004)

Hey, Kelley . . .

 Though the knapping characteristics of glass are different that those of chert or flint, similar techniques are used.

 In this case the shaping was done by removing flakes from the interior surface (of the former bottle).  The spalls of glass are unpredictable, thus the scars are not uniform or well-oriented.  Here, all that is left of the interior surface of the bottle-glass is the small central area (it appears bubble-like in the image).  It is sharpened around the entire periphery.

 A tool of glass such as this would be sharp enough to do minor surgery.  The thin edge would not hold up well for rough duty such as scraping hides or working wood -- chert tools would be more suited to those tasks.  

 The "thumbnail scraper" is a common tool with many uses, no doubt.  It is uncommon to find one made of glass.

 ----------------Harry Pristis


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## Maine Digger (Apr 4, 2004)

Harry, You must have a very 'trained eye'.[8|] I agree with Gunsmoke, these would pass as fragments to anyone else. As to the sharpness, you're right on, in a 'former' life, I worked in the micro-pathology lab at Havard med.  In our preparations for the electron microscopes, we needed to slice or section tissue in thicknesses of 3-10 angstrums - much thinner than a hair.  Without getting too technical, we would take small 1'' squares of 1/4 to 3/8th inch thick plate glass and snap it diagonally. The resulting edge was sharper than anything man could produce, even the diamond blades were not sharper.  That the Florida natives were enterprising enough to realize the utility of glass scraps 150+ years ago is facinating.  Thanks for the history lesson.[]


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## Harry Pristis (Apr 4, 2004)

I do have a trained eye, Norm, from many years of collecting things other than bottles in the field.  

 One cue to the eye are lines or margins that are not "right" for the situation.  Your eye/brain can discern straight lines or margins where otherwise you'd expect irregular margins.  ...or round shapes where they are not reasonable.

 In the same manner, your eye/brain becomes accustomed to the nature of broken glass.   You develop expectations,  you learn.   If you drop a bottle and it shatters, you know not to sweep up the shards with your bare hands.  You have the expectation that there will be irregular, blade-like shards which could hurt you.

 It was such expectations that caused me to do a double-take on this little glass tool.   Bottles don't typically break into round shapes, and yet before my eyes/brain was a round shard of black glass.  

 The bevelling of the interior (of the bottle) edge confirmed that this is an artifact.  Glass tends to break along the path of least resistance; unless it is scored or otherwise flawed (as with invisible stresses locked into the glass), it tends to break at a near right-angle, the shortest path through the glass.  The broad bevel on the tool-edge would almost certainly be produced by pressure-flaking.

 I have cut lots of glass over the years (I make glass-fronted collector cases), but not much plate glass, Norm.  You must have had a stout machine that broke your 1" squares of plate glass to produce the blades you describe -- it is hard enough to break a larger piece along a score.

 ------------Harry Pristis


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## Maine Digger (Apr 4, 2004)

Harry, were you a teacher at one time[8|]  I can see how the nip marks on the perimeter are a give away regarding tooling.  I assuming when you discovered this you were looking for artifacts at the site, thus brain-eye alert for such discoveries.  The glass we snapped as I said was 1'' squares 1/4 - 3/8'' thick, not 1'' cubes.  The practice is still used in labs, the cube is scored diagonally and snapped in a unit not too much unlike a tile cutter.  The unit which the glass cutter is mounted in is a ultramicrotome. The arm of the microtome holding the speciman advances until contact is made with 'knife' edge, sections then float off in ribbons in a water trough that is attached to the glass knife.  Sections are so thin, that a dual ocular microscope is used to spot them as the refract light on the surface of the water...well enough for the science lesson[8|] Here's a very quick, crude drawing of the process. By the way you could determine the thickness of the slices by the color they reflected/refracted if I remember gold was less than 10 angstrums


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## Harry Pristis (Apr 5, 2004)

That's interesting, Norm.  I have seen microtomes, but didn't know about the glass blades that your machine uses.

 For the curious, an angstrom is a unit of length equal to one ten-billionth of a meter.

 --------------Harry Pristis


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## Maine Digger (Apr 5, 2004)

Harry, have you seen 'ultra' microtomes? These were constructed for the Electron Microscopy field of research. The standard microtomes are used for general pathology sectioning.  Bear in mind, I was doing this back in 1973-4.  We generally used manufactured diamond edged 'knives', but often resorted to the glass ones when we wanted a particularly thin section, as the glass edge was superior in sharpness. But they wer only good for 1 run.  Gee, all these years later I'm back to 'playing' with glass![]


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## Kim (Apr 5, 2004)

Hi Norm & Harry
 "Amazing" You seem to be well educated guys with scientific knowledge of glass.  You lost me back earlier in the conversation (being a blonde and all).  If you could explain in a simple language or maybe in a different way so I can understand it, I sure would appreciate it. I am curious, Sorry!
 Kim


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## Maine Digger (Apr 5, 2004)

Hi Kim, My background is biologocal research, at least when I was at university. When I tried it as an occupation I found it unbearable[&:]  Much of my time was spent in a darkened room looking through a scope or preparing tissue.  I need to be outside, dailey meeting new people and challenges. I now design and sell industrial and commercial fire alarm systems; I work out of my home for a corporation out of state. I have a great deal of freedom and am enjoying myself for the first time in many years.  My wife shares my addiction for bottles so that makes it twice as nice.  Oh, I suspect Harry might have just a 'little' more background in regards to artifacts and glass in general[8|]  My knowledge is limited to this, freshly broken glass is sharp, and 'old glass' is great.[]


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## Maine Digger (Apr 6, 2004)

Hey Harry, I thought you might be interested in this pane of glass I pulled out of an 1860s - 1870s dump. It measures 4'' x 6'' x 9/16''.  It clearly shows the marks of hand tooling. I suspect it was a small pane in a larger window of mutiple panes. Unfortunately, there's quite a 'bite' out of one side.


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## Maine Digger (Apr 6, 2004)

I converted to grey scale in first photo for better definition, here' overall shot


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## Maine Digger (Apr 6, 2004)

and lastly...a shot illustrating the thickness.


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## Harry Pristis (Apr 6, 2004)

That is a remarkable piece of glass, Norm.  Nine-sixteenth of an inch is three time as thick as the plate glass shelves I use for my bottles!  Do you suppose that it had some industrial use?

 I understand why those edges are nibbled instead of having clean breaks; a small piece of glass that thick would be very difficult to score and break.

 When you say "hand tooling," do you mean the nibbling?  It's not crown glass, is it?

 ---------------Harry Pristis


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## Maine Digger (Apr 6, 2004)

Hi Harry, yes I meant a 'tool' of some type was used to square up the edges of the glass. I was thinking something like the 'nippers' I use with ceramic tile. Perhaps this little pane was salvaged from a larger pane that had been broken.  I'm not sure where it may have been used, it's remarkably clean for such an old piece.


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## Maine Digger (Apr 6, 2004)

Here's the pic I meant to post - Not sure what you mean by Crown Glass - glass that was taxed?[8|]


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## Harry Pristis (Apr 7, 2004)

crown glass is blown on a blowpipe, then opened, and pressed flat.  The earliest form of window glass.  Crown glass has irregularity, the thickest glass being at the place of detachment from the blow pipe.

 ------------Harry Pristis


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## Maine Digger (Apr 7, 2004)

No, I don't believe this is crown glass then, it is very smooth and uniform. Just another little mystery from the 'sands of time'[]  Thanks for all the information, have you written any books Harry?


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