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Chance Brothers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
  • Start date Start date
Hi Lyn, we went to see the kites in Radnorshire - not sure where you saw them. Fascinating to watch.

Alan, yes, I inherited my Nan's but gave it to my daughter. I only usually use celery in cooking.
 
Just been watching this marvellous month in the life of an Hanois Lighthouse (off Guernsey) keeper filmed in 1994, and although I don't know who made the glass, it reminded me of this thread. Well worth watching with no intrusive music. Read the comments as one of the keepers watched this video many years later after they had all been automated. He said that the difference between then and when he wrote the comment was that both his hair and beard had gone white! Tell me about it! :)


Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Just been watching this marvellous month in the life of an Hanois Lighthouse (off Guernsey) keeper filmed in 1994, and although I don't know who made the glass, it reminded me of this thread. Well worth watching with no intrusive music. Read the comments as one of the keepers watched this video many years later after they had all been automated. He said that the difference between then and when he wrote the comment was that both his hair and beard had gone white! Tell me about it! :)


Maurice
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Hello sospiri,

Just a bit of useless info perhaps, after doing some research into my family history I discovered that my 2nd great grandmother (Hannah) was a member of the Chance Glass family.

Lozellian.
 
Lozellian,

Almost a claim to fame them! I presume that Chance was her maiden name then? I must admit that I hadn't heard of the company until Wendy opened this thread in 2007, but it's nice to have a bit of Brum industrial history linked to the name.

Maurice
 
I have various memories of Chance's. In the early 1960's I went their factory in Smethwick. They were making tubing for fluorescent lights by the 100 foot. It was extruded from a pot in a gulley. A man followed the machine pulling the glass. When he thought the tube was of the correct diameter he took off his cap and flapped to cool it and stop it collapsing.

Nearby a machine was attaching the front face to cathode ray tubes for TV. The tube turned and four gas jets moved in and out, following the round rectangle to form a seal.

I do not where it was made but Chance's also made Hysil laboratory glassware. As an analytical chemist at the time I considered their 300 ml tallform beaker marvellous; much better than the Pyrex equivalent. Even utilitarian objects can have an elegance.
 
sospiri said:
Lozellian,

Almost a claim to fame them! I presume that Chance was her maiden name then? I must admit that I hadn't heard of the company until Wendy opened this thread in 2007, but it's nice to have a bit of Brum industrial history linked to the name.

Maurice
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Hello sospiri,

According to the information that was passed onto me recently, she married into the chance family. It's my understanding that although I'm not 100% sure that her maiden name was Medlicott.

Lozellian.
 
Lozellian,

After a short search, I must admit that I can't spot a Hannah Medlicott / Chance marriage, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist!

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Lozellian,

After a short search, I must admit that I can't spot a Hannah Medlicott / Chance marriage, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist!

Maurice
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Hello sospiri,

Know what you mean, all I can seem to find out was that it was her second marriage after being widowed previously but, as you know research is a painstaking activity.

Lozellian.
 
Astoness said:
mike i got a bit closer a couple of years back...note the guard dog behind the bars photo 1..he was not very happy at all lol

once again i say well done to the people of the black country...they really DO care about their history and historical buildings and to boot a plaque which i did not know about...:)
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Outstanding...…...
 
My Gt Gt Grandfather William Blackhall ( an ex soldier and Irishman) was Night Watchman there in the mid 1800's until his death in 1867 - some of his offspring worked there as well as glass blowers/ labourers etc... Fanatstic place - made the glass for the conservatory at Witley Court - and the Great exhibition of 1851
 
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Dont forget one of the world greatest manufacturers of ornamental glass was F & C Osler in Broad Street, Birmingham. The son of the founder also paid for the Bells of Big Brum! Several lovely pieces of Osler Glass are exhibited in BMAG
 
Very true Penns, but, on this thread we are discussing Chance's. If you would like to start a thread about Oslers, there does not seem to be one on the forum at present
 
ive been watching this building for many years now..do hope its bought back to life again...my grandad worked there during the 1920s

lyn
 
By coincidence I rode past it on my bike today. I also know the Trust chairman Mike. Ill see him in a couple of weeks, so will have a chat about where they are with things.
 
My gt gt grandfather was the Nighwatchman there in the 1850's. The Victorian equivalent of the modern Security man...He was a discharged soldier having done 25 years .. I've seen his wage record those sons / grandsons that didn't go in the army were glass blowers
 
Good news that The Chance Glassworks will be preserved, with a lighthouse too. Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall can be visited and the dazzling optics were made by Chance Glass (had to dig about to check though as Trinity House don't see the glass manufacturer as a historical feature). Astonishing to me is that they use ordinary electric lightbulbs, it is the glass which forms the beam.IMG_1128.jpeg
 
Stokkie said:
Good news that The Chance Glassworks will be preserved, with a lighthouse too. Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall can be visited and the dazzling optics were made by Chance Glass (had to dig about to check though as Trinity House don't see the glass manufacturer as a historical feature). Astonishing to me is that they use ordinary electric lightbulbs, it is the glass which forms the beam.View attachment 170774
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I remember visiting the Lizard Lighthouse when I was on holiday in Cornwall with my family years ago, we were told that the optics were made in Birmingham and my Dad didn't hesitate to say proudly that we were from Brum!
 
A Sparks said:
I remember visiting the Lizard Lighthouse when I was on holiday in Cornwall with my family years ago, we were told that the optics were made in Birmingham and my Dad didn't hesitate to say proudly that we were from Brum!
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Good for Dad, we should not be shy of our past and present achievements!
 
I worked at a place in Spring Lane, Malvern, just round the corner from Chance. Went past it everyday. Very unassuming building, very low key industrial estate premises apparently put there in 1947, unlike those photos of the Smethwick factory in this thread. They would have been the lab glass offshoot of Pilkington at that time (71 to 76), but as everyone will know, they went private in 1992, keeping the name.

You will know this,
"In the early 20th century, many new ways of making glass evolved at Chance Brothers such as the innovative welding of a cathode ray tube used for radar detection."

But did you know this,
"In 1933, the company was reported to be involved in an attempt to contact "any intelligent life" on the planet Mars, using adapted lighthouse optics from a mountaintop, the Jungfrau, in Switzerland."
Source. Wikipedia.

Just a tidbit.

Andrew.
 
I don't know if I have mentioned this before but when I worked for Henry Hope & Sons in Smethwick in the early 1960s we constructed the steelwork for one of Chance's lighthouses and fitted it out for them before it was taken apart again and shipped abroad in order to test that everything fitted OK.
 
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