Brookhaven National Laboratory
Chemistry Building, #555 , Room 113
Upton, NY 11973-5000
Glass Shop hours are from 8:30am to 12.30pm.
Phone: 631-344-4309
Fax: 631-344-5815
E-Mail: Lafler@bnl.gov
Meet: Barry W. Lafler
The scientific glassblowing shop at Brookhaven National Laboratory provides design consultation, technical information, material, vendor recommendation,
fabrication of new glassware, repair, modification of existing apparatus and
practical application of resources to customer needs.
To schedule glassblowing service BNL employees and guests outside the Chemistry
Department must fill out an Intra Laboratory Requisition (ILR). This ILR should
include a project number to be charged with an authorized signature for the
project. Work cannot be started without this. Mail or bring this information to
the glass shop along with a drawing. An invoice will be provided to each
customer upon completion of their job.
Article appeared on Brookhaven Bulletin, Vol. 58, No.
30, August 27, 2004............................
BNL’s Scientific Glassblower Honored,
Lafler wins American Scientific Glassblowers award:
“It takes about ten to twelve years to become proficient in
glassblowing,” says Barry Lafler, Chemistry Department. He speaks from
experience, as he has been working with glass for 35 years —the last 12-plus of
them as BNL’s scientific glassblower. Lafler’s peers have recently recognized
his efforts to share his specialized knowledge of the craft. The American
Glassblowers Society, a professional, nonprofit organization of approximately
425 members, has honored Lafler with the 2004 J. Allen Alexander Award. The
award consists of a plaque with a citation: “For outstanding contributions in
furthering the aims and ideals of our Society.” The society’s objectives are to
share and promote the knowledge of scientific glassblowing. Lafler creates
custom-made glassware that cannot be purchased from a catalog, and he modifies
and repairs existing scientific glassware for any department or division at BNL
that requires his services. For example, he has made plasma tubes for lasers,
furnace tubes for physics experiments, and numerous glass devices and containers
for the Biology and Chemistry Departments. Recently, he designed an oil pump
made of glass to replace toxic mercury diffusion pumps, thereby helping to make
BNL a safer workplace. By designing a special container for mixing gases, Lafler
also recently helped Jack Preses of Chemistry to perform his research more
efficiently. In many experiments, Preses needs to combine gases that do not mix
easily or quickly, so he asked Lafler if he could design a glass apparatus to
fix the problem. “Barry created a bulb with a glass fan and a magnetic stirring
bar that makes mixing gases much quicker,” Preses said. “It’s useful to have
someone on site who understands what you need in glassware and can make it for
you.” Working at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer, which produces
radionuclides for nuclear medicine and research purposes worldwide, George
Meinken, Medical Department, handles radioactive targets remotely. For this
purpose, Lafler designed glassware shaped so that it can easily be picked up and
moved with remote manipulators. “Barry’s specially designed glassware makes it
easier and safer for me to handle radioactive materials,” Meinken said. In 1997,
it was Lafler’s idea to create time capsules to be filled with BNL memorabilia
to celebrate the Lab’s fiftieth anniversary. Lafler followed through by making a
pair of unique, moisture-resistant glass time capsules that were buried not far
from Berkner Hall. They are to be opened in 2047. Lafler forms scientific glass
mostly of borosilicate glass and some quartz glass with a torch that can heat up
the materials to 1,500 degrees Centigrade. In this process, called lampworking,
he starts with glass tubing of different sizes, and uses established procedures,
as well as artistic intuition, to mold the molten glass into desired shapes.
While Lafler enjoys his craft and has made a lifelong career of it, he was
initiated into the field by chance. “I served in the U.S. Navy in the late
1960s, and when I completed my term of duty, I went to my local employment
office in Horseheads, NY, to find a job,” he recalled. “I was referred to a
local glass shop, where I was hired to make glass-to-metal seals and vacuum tube
assemblies for night scopes used in the Vietnam War. I liked the work, and, a
year later, I joined Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY, where I studied
scientific glassblowing as an apprentice for three years and as a journeyman for
an additional two years.” Lafler worked for Eastman Kodak as a scientific
glassblower for 22 years, and, in 1991, he joined BNL. He has been a member of
the American Scientific Glassblowers Society since 1981, and he has held many
posts in the organization, including that of President, from 1999 to 2000. He
has also taught and demonstrated glassblowing techniques in numerous settings,
including the Urban Glass NY Contemporary Glass Center, the Corning Museum of
Glass, the Art League of Long Island, and Gallery North in Setauket, NY. In the
fall, Lafler will start a new adventure in glassblowing. He is planning to open
his own shop — Island Glass Studio, 93 West Main Street in Patchogue — where he
will offer a product line of his unique glassware for sale. He also will make
custom-made glassware based on customers’ specifications. In addition, he will
offer courses in scientific glassblowing for beginners and established students
of the craft, as well as courses in the proper care of glassware. But, on
weekdays, you’ll still find Lafler in the glassworking shop in Bldg. 555,
molding glass tubes into scientific apparatus and tools of all sorts — a
challenge he still enjoys. — Diane Greenberg