Mouth
Today, on "how it's made"... Mouth-blown window glass... Water pumps... Sake... And tweezers. Before machine-made plate glass became popular in the 1920s, window glass was blown by artisans. Today, specialty companies still make window glass the traditional way. While machine-made glass is uniformly clear and flat, mouth-blown window glass has subtle variations. This german company produces a wide variety of mouth-blown sheet glass. It's used to make contemporary wall light panels. It can also be used to make clear or stained glass windows. The company can make glass sheets in 5,000 different colors and textures. This furnace melts silica sand and other natural materials into glass. The starter begins by inserting the end of a blowpipe into a furnace. He takes a small amount of colorless molten glass out of the furnace and rotates it in a wooden mold. The mold is lined with heavy paper to soften the surface. Then, he inserts a metal needle through the blowpipe to create a pathway for air. He returns to the furnace for more molten glass. The artisans make multiple trips to the furnace, shaping the molten glass in stages so it's easier to handle. This time, the assistant shapes the glass with a large mold. When the shape is set, the assistant prepares it for blowing. He uses a fork tool to push the glass to the top of the pipe. The starter rotates the glass in a larger, paper-lined mold to round it further. The molten glass cools rapidly once it comes out of the furnace. If the temperature dips below 1,800 degrees, it's not longer workable. So the team must work quickly and reheat the glass repeatedly. Another assistant lubricates the blowpipe so it will rotate easily on the support stand. The starter hands the glass over to the master glassblower. First, he rotates the blowpipe to straighten and center the drooping glass. Then, he begins turning and blowing into the pipe to gradually inflate the glass. This requires great physical strength as well as tremendous artistic and technical skill. The pipe and glass weigh over 30 pounds combined. When the glass starts to cool, the assistant reheats it in a smaller oven. He passes the pipe back to the glassblower, who then resumes inflating it. This time, he swings it upside-down, using gravity to help elongate the shape. Next, he will transform the glass balloon into a cylinder. First, he reheats the tip of the glass and weakens it with a hot burner. Then, he reheats the entire glass cylinder. This expands the air inside and forces the weakened tip open. The glassblower taps the opposite side of the hot glass with a cold metal stick. The thermal shock causes a neat stress break. This releases the glass from the blowpipe. Then, the assistant slices it lengthwise with a glass cutter and hands it off to the flattening team. Their job is to transform the cylinder into sheet glass. The flattening master's assistant puts the cylinder into a furnace. It's heated to over 1,500 degrees. The glass softens in about 30 minutes. Then, the flattening master reaches into the opposite end of the furnace with a stick and gently opens the cylinder. Next, the flattening master irons the glass sheet with a special wooden tool. The flat sheet goes into the annealing oven for a gradual controlled cooldown. This relieves stress and prevents cracking. The flatting master's assistant removes the glass from the annealing oven and performs a visual inspection. The last step is to cut the edges straight. To make multicolored and textured glass, they add additional ingredients during the melting process. Mouth-blown window glass contains natural variations that play with the light and create a subtle glow, a glow that machine-made window glass can't replicate. Water is essential for life. But most of earth's fresh water is trapped underground. To tap into these reservoirs, we need water pumps. They've existed in many forms for thousands of years. The designs have improved over time, and today's water pumps are truly an underground success. For farmers and municipal water providers, the turbine water pump is a workhorse. It can pump thousands of gallons of water out of the ground every minute. They start by making diffuser bowls using urn-shaped castings. One turbine pump could have up to 30 diffuser bowls. The bowls hold the pump's spinning impellers. Computerized tools refine their shape so the bowls fit neatly in the pump column. Another set of tools carve the bronze impellers. They fine-tune the casings so that the impellers will fit into the diffuser bowls. Here's a look at both sides of the finished impellers. An uneven impeller will vibrate when spinning. A technician uses this machine to check for imbalances. When sensors locate the problem, he sands down the metal in that area. This balances the impeller. Next, a machine carves the top attachment ring of the discharge head. The discharge head shields the motor from water. It also changes the water flow from vertical to horizontal. Next, a machine carves the outflow flange and drills holes for attaching a gasket. An employee paints the part blue. The paint protects the metal against rust. He also highlights the embossed company name with bright red paint. Here are the machine parts before and after painting. Next, they make the pump's shaft pipes. Tools work on both ends of the pipes simultaneously to refine the inner diameter. Then, they carve threads into them. They clean the pipes, then roll them into the holding area. Next, computerized tools cut threads into the bronze bearings. These threads will interconnect with the ones on the shaft pipes. A worker screws the completed bearings into the ends of the shaft pipes. Then, he screws the pipes together in a loose preassembly. He brushes lubricant onto the exposed section of the bearings. He links four pipes to create one 20-foot pipe. He sets the long pipe in a cradle-like device and activates the drive wheel. As the pipes tighten, the bearing disappears inside. The worker inserts a steel shaft into each 20-foot pipe. He caps the ends to secure the shafts inside the pipes. This wider pipe is called the column pipe. An employee attaches an assembly flange to each end and secures it with bolts. A worker connects a suction bell to one of the shafts. The suction bell will draw the well water into the pump. Then, he slides an impeller into place. He secures the impeller to the shaft with a tapered clamp called a collet. He encases the impeller in an iron diffuser bowl. He bolts the diffuser bowl to the suction bell. They add more impellers to increase the power of the water pump. A more powerful pump will be able to extract water from deeper underground. They apply protective paint to the pump, and then, it's ready to install. On site, workers use special equipment to help guide the pump into the well. They join the shaft pipe to the pump. Then, they slide the column pipe around the shaft pipe and bolt it to the top of the pump. The team adds more shaft pipe for a deeper reach. Then, they install the discharge head. This turbine pump is now ready to extract water from great depths underground. Sake is japanese rice wine. It's distinguished by two main factors-- how the rice is milled before fermentation, and whether there's any distilled alcohol added to the final blend. Sake can be mass-produced or handcrafted the traditional way. This canadian microbrewery only makes pure rice wine called junmai-shu. The brewery doesn't add any extra alcohol to their sake. The clear sake, known as seishu, have a subtle, fruitier, nutty flavor. Cloudier sake is called nigori. It contains rice sediment, which produces its creamier texture. The rice is milled before it arrives at the brewery. Milling removes the proteins and lipids on the outside layers of the rice grain. This rice has 30 percent of its grain milled away. The starch of the core will produce premium sake. First, they wash the rice. Then, the pour it in a porous bag and soak it in cold filtered water. The brewmaster checks the rice with his hands. Once it reaches the right consistency, they drain the bag overnight. Then, they pour the rice into a steamer. The steamer cooks the rice under pressure for about an hour. They cover the steamer with cloth to contain the rice as it cooks. The steamer softens the rice but doesn't overcook it. To ferment at the right speed, the rice needs to be firm on the outside and soft in the center. Workers separate the rice by hand, then use fans to cool the rice down to about 98 degrees. Next, they transfer it to a heated room. They spread out the rice and cover it with mold spores imported from japan. When heated, the spores germinate and grow on the rice. The spores secrete enzymes that will transform the starch into fermentable sugars. Workers insert a thermometer into the rice then wrap it in cloth to hold in the heat. 48 hours later, the sweet rice, called koji, is ready. Now, they begin the fermentation process. They mix 3/4 of steamed rice with 1/4 of koji in a temperature-controlled fermentation tank. Then, they add spring water and yeast. The mold enzymes in the koji convert the starch in the steamed rice into sugars. The yeast consumes those sugars and produces alcohol. The process takes about three weeks. The brewmaster checks the temperature, acidity, residual sugar, and alcohol levels every day. When the brew is ready, they pour it into cloth bags. They neatly stack the bags in a traditional japanese mechanical press. Large sake breweries automate this entire process, but this smaller operation follows century-old traditions and does everything by hand. As the press fills up, the weight of the bags kick-starts the pressing. They seal the press with heavy steel plates and mount the pressing mechanism. As they turn the crank, the press squeezes all the liquid out of the bags. When they're done, only unfermented rice will be left behind. The liquid sake drains out of a spout at the base of the press. They age the sake in refrigerated tanks for up to 4 months. As it ages, the sake develops deeper and more complex flavors. Not only is this sake entirely handcrafted, it's also hand-bottled. Workers use a gravity-fed filling machine to pour sake into these glass bottles. The dark bottles protects the sake from uv rays, which would spoil its color and flavor. Next, they add the aluminum twist cap. A machine molds it to the shape of the bottleneck and crimps the bottom rim. They apply a label to each bottle with a simple hand-crank machine. Full-strength sake has an alcohol content of 18 percent. Some sake is diluted with spring water to bring the alcohol content down before bottling. The sake this brewery produces is unpasteurized. This enhances the flavor but requires refrigeration. Tweezers were first used in ancient egypt and rome. These indispensable tools help us grip small objects. We use tweezers to pull splinters and unwanted hair from our skin. They can also handle the tiny parts found in mechanical devices, like watches. When something small eludes our grasp, tweezers help us pick them up. They act as an extension of our forefinger and thumb, allowing us to grab and hold on to the tiniest things. First, a worker preps the tweezer mold by grinding and sanding around the tweezer-shaped cavity. This smoothes the mold, making it easier to cut out the metal parts. A worker buffs the mold to give the surface a glossy finish. A computer-guided machine carves a die cutter out of a steel block. It uses an electrified brass wire to slice through the steel. The die cutter perfectly matches the tweezer mold. After the tools are prepped, they're ready to make the tweezers. A coil of thick stainless steel wire unwinds into the molding machine. Rollers straighten out the kinks. An automated device grabs the wire and pulls it between the die-cutter and the mold. The die-cutter pushes the wire into the mold and cuts out the shape it needs. The excess steel slides out, and a spool collects it for recycling. The mold ejects the part into a bin. They are a little thinner at the gripping end. This design gives the tweezers more flexibility. An employee places two of the parts in an induction welder. He activates the welder to fuse it twice at the gripping end. A double weld reinforces the joint, making it very difficult to pull the tweezers apart. This welder assembles approximately 3,000 pairs of tweezers per shift. Each pair of tweezers is thoroughly polished to make them smoother and easier to grip. It's a multi-step process. First, an employee sands the body of the tweezers using fine abrasive paper and polishing cream. Next, the tweezers go into a vibrating polisher. They bounce around with ceramic stones and various polishing solutions for 24 hours. After that, they wash off the chemical residue. Then, they filter and neutralize the water. Using another device, they shoot fine glass particles at the tweezers. This gives them a satin finish that's durable and resists scratching. A worker levels a tweezers' tips using a sanding belt. She makes sure the claw-like tips are exactly the same length and angle. Another member of the team sands the inside of the tips using a very fine abrasive disc. This will improve the tweezer's grip. The factory also makes carbon steel tweezers. They're a cheaper alternative to stainless steel. They immerse the carbon steel tweezers in a chrome solution to protect them from rust. The tweezers' electrical charge attracts the chrome. The result is a shiny and protective chrome plating. Next, an employee prepares the tweezers for laser lettering. She places them in a fixture and selects the image on her computer. She activates the laser, and it permanently etches the graphics onto the metal. Next, she rubs special oil onto the surface of the metal and cleans the tweezers thoroughly. She also inspects the tweezers for any cosmetic flaws and makes sure they function properly. These tweezers are now ready for plucking, primping, and any other small jobs.