Dumbass Bethesda

[bben46]

 

I also find it hilarious that we get copper from light bulbs, and glass in an amount that would be in any way significant. This is ignoring the fact that glass is expensive / difficult to reclaim and re-purpose even in our modern, un-nuked world. In fact, the ease and quickness with which our PC magically plunks down any construction element or device / machine is .. well .. incredible. ;o)

 

Actually glass is one of the easiest materials to reclaim and re-purpose. All it takes is a hot fire and ... glass. I have been in third world countries where scrap glass is made into usable things. They melt it and shape it or pour it into a flat plate for window glass or roll it to make a tube for blowing glass objects. The roller was 2 metal tubes turned by a hand crank. They made things like bottles and jugs by forming in a mold, or glass fishing floats. These were very primitive manufacturing plants without high voltage electricity or gas for hotter fires. They used charcoal in an enclosed brick oven to heat the glass and a hand bellows to pump in air to make a hotter fire. There was even one place that made some really nice glass marbles. The glass they used was mostly broken beer bottles or whatever other broken glass they could get. I still have a couple of the fishing floats, But I lost my marbles. :whistling:

 

Some glass, like tempered or the safety glass used in car windshields would be useless for this though.

 

Some of the materials you do need to take with a grain pound of salt though. :tongue: My guess is the lead in pencils was a joke.

[roamwild]

[...]

Actually glass is one of the easiest materials to reclaim and re-purpose. All it takes is a hot fire and ... glass.

[...]

That's great, thanks for correcting me on this and providing such an interesting anecdote. Wonder why I made this incorrect assumption.

 

 

But I lost my marbles. :whistling:

D'oh, hehehe.