ADPT'CA,L
OSC¡llqtions
Published Fridays by the Optical Sciences Center
for employees, students, and alunni.
Biweekly
in sum¡ner. Martha Stockton, editor.
Richard
Murphy, photographer.
Phil Costanzo, printer.
N o . 1 1 3- - J u n e1 5 , 1 9 7 9
B U I L D I NIG
"0H, YtS--THE
,JITH
T H EG L A SS C U L P T U R EM: 'o, s r
visitors
to the UA campus can easily locate the Opti_
cal Sciences Center, because they identify
it wittr ttre
glass sculpture by OSCartist
Don Couen that graces the
portico.
But few admirers of the sculpture are aware
of the story behind ir or of the signilicance
of the
(Photo
bv Geonge
IØn)
sculpture and the material of which it is nade.
The material itself
is Pyrex grass--fron a piece of cullet presented by corning Glass works
to
the Ootical sciences center in 1967, two yeaïs before cornpletiõn
of the present oSC building.
ItCullettr is broken or waste glass
suitable for renelting,
and this particular
cu1let originated
as part of the last nelt of one of the grass tanks in the õárning gtass
factory.
¡ "l"n¡"
in this
case was one of the gigantic production-line
furnaces that was ,rÀeã to nelt glass for pyrex cookware'
Pyrex is nade these days, as the nore popular Pyroceran naterial
^(Little
now is the basis for
most of the cookware corning is making.)
Jr¡st before a tank was considered to be worn out, it was
filled
with a special glass nelt, or irigntry
different
composition, that was suiteá narticutarly
for use in telescope mirrors.
The speciát giass nelt was allowed to cool in the tank, and after it
hardened, it wasrrminedrrout.
The bioken_pieces of rrtelescope glass'r weïe then storeá atong the
river bank near the factory,
waiting for final
re¡nelt into nirrór
blanks, as the demand occurred.
Meanwhile, the tank itsetf
was relined with fire brick in preparation for a new rir"-"y"re
of melt]-ng grass.
The piece of cullet
that eventually ended up at Osc, says Aden Meínel, dates back nearty
to the
time of the melt that supplied the Pyrex glass for the 200-inch prinary
nirror of the palonar telescope, the worldrs second largest astrononical telescope-. Aden ipotted
this particular
piece anong
others that lined the river bank, and rearized it might have sone use in
the soon-to-be-bui1t
optical sciences center.
shortly thereafter,
the corning conpany presented it to osc--all
J300 pounds
of it--and the rest of the story is the story of its transformation to a work
of art.
The task of creatíng an esthetic sculpture from this massive
chunk of glass fell to Osc artist
Don coùen, who had joined the
Osc staff in 1965 with much prior experience in painting and sculpture, and who was attracted to a job at the optièal sciènces cen-^
ter
illustration.
_for the opportunity to combinè art and scientific
when he first
saw the glass--rlt
was about the size and shape of
a desk,rrhe recalls--Donts first
thought was that it didn't r.rgg"rt
anything very esthetic.
"I wondered how it could be made to fit
the porch.
I did sone sketches using the singre piece.
Nothing
pleased me. The more I looked at ir; the norã I started
to becóne
depressed.tt
In any case, he realized, he would have to learn how to work
the
naterial,
and he turned his energies to that.
The glass was moved
to the 22nd Street Annex, a large warehouse at cheriy and 22nd
street that at that tine and for several years afterward
housed
various support activities
of the osc.
Don had worked with netal
and stone before, but glass was new to him.
"After brunting a
couple of chisels, I arranged with chct,Lie Butkhatt
[head oã tne
instrument shop at that time] to get me sone tempered steel
chisels.f'
But these didn't work either.
"The onry way to sculpt
glass, I found' was to spri_t it.
There was no way to lniseTff
All you'd get by chiseliig-Tould
b e c r u s h e d a n d p - o w d e r e dg r a s s a n d
1SC antist
Don Cowen
flakes.'r
And splitting
the glass, he reasoned, shourd be easiest
if done along planes of stress.
He began talking with Diek sunmer about stress patterns in pyrex.
"with Dickrs help r got two
large sheets of polaroid material, one on each sidê of the grass, and
we could actuatly see the
planes of stress in it.
I began to make sketches of these ãnd siudied then to see
whether I could
split the glass along these planes.
This was actually the first
sculpting design study.
I did several design studies of these r¡lanes in the block.
I irad tried everytiring-t couîd with the single
oiece, and now I was-beginning to see the for¡ns in it--as
if the blôck had forms in it that could
emerge and be beautifut.
I began to consider th;-idea of several free-form pieces.,,
But the glass still
refused to be worked. ruust about the tine Ird broken my
last tenpered
chisel, I got the idea of using an oxyacetylene flane to create
stress.
r was using a fine, sharp
blue point with the flame, but I wasnrt spiitting
any glass off--only nelting it."
Now ready to try alnost anything to get sone action, he raised
the glass slightly
with a crane
and then lowered it back down onto a *eãge.
Tentativei)¡, he hit the glass in the middle with a
hammer. And then again--
"It burst, with a loud boo¡n! Pieces of glass flew 40 feet, and everyone rushed out of the of'rlt was a shock to Don and me both
fices to see what had hapnened.r' (Aden Meinel recalls today:
The reason
when he telephoned me that the glass had explodcd on him. He could have been killed!")
for the explosive breakup was that the glass cullet had not been annealed. Annealing is a heat
process that relieves the stresses that have built up in the rapidly cooling cul1et, and prevents
just such incidents as this from occurring.
But now that he had his smaller blocks--three large ones, plus
innunerable fragments--Don was free to expand his design ideas to
rrangenent of free-form pieces.
' ârì a
rrl drew a rough sketch of what I thought lrd like, sinilar
to
I wanted to make a large spiral structhe design you see today.
ture, rising from a forn reminiscent of a large mirror support."
,,
Perhaps because he was now
Then he went back to the glass.
working with smaller pieces,ttf was able to split it using the
:' flame.
I devised a 'hit-and-splitr
method, and using the ftame
alone I began to chirr small pieces off wherever I wished.
LuckI hit the one largest piece the way I wanted and got an extra
ily,
piece to use as a reserve--I think itrs still
around here
s o m e w h e r e .t t
As he began to get better control and knew he could handle the
material, Don finalized the plan of the sculpture.
He specified
to the building architects
the substructure that would be needed
'rBy then, it was
and the overhead lighting
that would enhance it.
a sculpture.
Before, it was a block of glass."
As he finished shaping the blocks, Don added sone texture to
contrast with the smooth planes on the glass, by deliberately
roughening the glass in places with a ninerrs pick.
And finally,
he burred off any renaining sharp, cutting
edges with a heavy-duty
(Photo by CeorgeKa't)
belt
Sander.
'rThis is suggested
As he'd explained, the feeling of a mirror support is intrinsic
to the design.
by the <lish-shaped steel structure below the glass," he says.
The metalwork was done by Daue Zaehary
of the instrunent shop. The concrete base was poured by a subcontractor.
First the steel collar and support
The sculpture was assenbled on the site where it now stands.
on and secured with
Dosts were attached to the concrete base, and then the glass pieces wçre lifted
steel pins.
The final result is a piece of art custon nade for its setting.
The irregular
shapes of the glass
pieces contrast with the perpendicular angles in the building entrance.
The ribbed steel guard rail
echoes the ribbed effect of the entrance canopy and the ceiling of the lobby, and the concrete drun
that forms the base ties the sculpture to the texture of the quarry tile entrance floor and the surrounding concrete building structure.
T h e s c u l p t u r e h a s d r a w n c o m m e n t s a n d a d n i r a t i o n f r o n O S Ce m p l o y e e s a n d v i s i t o r s
alike.
And Don
research and discovery that went into
himself is pleased.
"The big thing for ne was the stinulating
And it looks better to ne today than it did
I feel it was a trenendous effort,
well worth it.
it.
Does he plan to use the experience gained for another glass sculpture?
after I finished it.r'
The
'rNever,trhe says.
answer is unhesitating and final.
t oS P o o h s a n T Ø m t r a , w h o p a s s e d h i s P h D o r a l J u n e 4 . H i s d i s s e r t a t i o n
CONGRATULAïION
is on "Feedback
Systems for Inage Acquisition and Processing.r' Poohsan is now with Honeywell in Minneapolis, Minn.
Y O U RV A L I D A T I 0 No n y o u r f a c u l t y - s t a f f
IT'S TIME T0 RENEW
Alfrieda Hazdíng so that you can get the 1979-80 sticker
identification
that brings it
Take your card to
card.
up to date.
N E l l lF A C E S : T w o n e w s e c r e t a r i e s j o i n e d t h e s t a f f o f O S C l a s t w e e k . 0 n
floor is Sherv,ie Cornett, whors worki.ng with Bob Shannnn's
the fifth
group. Sherrie is a native of Arizona (Phoenix), who nost recently
comes from Flagstaff, where she was secretary for a book-publishing
cornpany. The move to Tucson is to enable
her husband, Zane, to begin a PhDprogram
in Forestry here at the UA--after which they
hone to return to the Flagstaff írrea. Sherare
riers favorite sDare time activities
You
sewing, reading, and horseback riding.
can reach her at ext. ó-3157. room 501.
On the seventh floor (room 704, ext. 6fron
1276) is Rose Bennet.L, who's originally
Indiana, has worked for 0wens-Corning Fiberglass in Ohio and in l,os Angeles, and who
came to Tucson (on April l) because she has
ç', ,,
Rose Bennett
! tl
friçnds here and likes the area.
Rose likes
'ry.
swimming, water ski ing, and snow skiing, and
:-.^just now is beginning a new activity--something
shets always wanted to
rve just rented the piano, and my first
lesson is
d
o
p
i
a
n
o
l
e
s
s
o
n
s
.
"
I
Shent,ie Cornett
tonight!"
G o o d l u c k , R o s e - - a n f l w e l c o r n et o b o t h R o s e a n d S h e r r i e .
V I S I T 0 R S F R O MK 0 R E AA N D F R O MC H I N Ah a v e r e c : e n t l y t o u r e c t t h e O S C . O n J u n e 5 a n d 6 a n d t o d a y , a d e l e gation of seven renrote sensing scientists from Korea visited the UA ¿ìspart of a working session involving various laboratories in the U.S.; the goal has been to identify areas of nutual interest and
possible futrrre collabor'¿rtion. The leader of this delegation. Dr. Sang Soo Lee, had visited the OSC
previously,
when he was here two sunners ago to consult with Phil. Slal;er,.
Two laser scientists
from the Peoplets Republic of China toured the campus yesterday wíth Peter
I'ranken.
O n e o f t h e m , t \ , o j ' . W r t . n rZ¿h i i ' L a . n ç t , V i c e D i r e c t o r o f t h e S h a n g h a i I n s t i t u t e
of Optics and
F i n e N { e c h a n i c s , A c a c l e m i aS i n i c a , g a v e a c o l l o q u i u n i n t h e a f t e r n o o n o n ' t l a s e r R e s e a r c h i n C h i n a . t t