This has been bugging me for awhile. Does anybody have any idea how they make ampules? I’m not trying to build my own or anything but i’ve always been interested to know how they get made. I’m assuming they’re glass, and glass needs to be really hot, like 4000 degrees to be fluid, and that is probably way above the evaporation point of any oil, so it doesnt seem to me like they dump the oil into the amp while its still malleable, then close the end. So, if anybody has any idea how it does work, i’d be interested to know.
anyone remember the show “amazing stories”? there was an episode where everyone was dressed in blue. everything was blue. these people were one minute in the future all the time and would build eveything we were going to see. basically, if nobody saw something then they didnt build it so it didnt exist. some how two people from the now time got stuck in there time for a minute and they had to wait for time to catch up to them. then at the end they were walking down the street and looked up and saw a blue hammer on top of a phone booth. so then they knew it wasnt just a dream or something. this thread reminded me of that. that shit fucks with my head. anyways, i am sure the solution is added to the amp during the manufacturing process and the glass top is crimped shut while hot to enclose it. either that or its just born there.
After thinking about it, i would imagine they use a “glass alloy” and not a pure silica glass and therefore the amp has a much lower melting temperature. also after inspecting an amp, it looks to me like a needle goes through the bottom while the amp is still malleable with pressure being applied around the sides of the amp, juice gets injected and even if it does evaporate the hole gets closed as soon as the needle is retracted because of the pressure on the amp, and therefore the juice will all stay in there, either gaseous or liquid. And eventually it will all stablize and its encased in glass. My theory anyway.
okay, i work in a university chemistry department and i just went and asked our resident glass blower. he says the ampules are pre made with a narrow open tube at the top. the drug/chemical is then added to the ampule via a pasteur pipette or a syringe or something similar. the pipette is carefully withdrawn to avoid contamination of tube like opening at the top. the open tube at the top of the ampule is then heated with a pin-point flame about half way down the tubes length and the tube naturally closes in on itself as you pull the body of the ampule away from the waste piece of glass above the sealing point. all of this is often done with an atmospheric pressure of nitrogen gas inside the ampule. glass has a melting point of about 1500 degrees centrigrade but is a terrible thermal conductor so the drug in the ampule does not get hot. that is the way my glass blowing friend explained it anyway. hope that helps answer your question.
Someone who makes designs with glass. If you’re good at it, you can make a ton of money making items such as old fashioned Christmas tree ornaments and decorative pieces. A lot of high-end light fixtures (especially custom ones) include hand blown glass.
some of the specialist laboratory glassware that the glass blower in the chemistry department makes look a lot like bongs. no wonder he is so easy going.
The real lucrative market of glass is crystal. When I was in Ireland I visited the Waterford cyrstal plant. Their show room didn’t contain anything under 500lbs - 750 dollars - and many were well of 5 or 10 grand!
Damnit, somebody pass that bong my way. Bikeboy is right on the money. I have found machines on the internet that do this for you but they are really expensive and highly regulated. Bummer.