§ 36 Spiral Tubes.
These are easily made where good heating apparatus is available. As, however, one constantly requires to bend tubes of about one-eighth inch in diameter into spirals in order to make spring connections for continuous glass apparatus, I will describe a method by which this is easily done. Provide a bit of iron pipe about an inch and a quarter in outside diameter. Cover this with a thick sheath of asbestos cloth, and sew the edges with iron wire. Hammer the wire down so that a good cylindrical surface is obtained. Make two wooden plugs for the ends of the iron pipe. Bore one to fit a nail, which may be held in a small retort clip, and fasten a stout wire crank handle into the other one. Support the neck of the handle by means of a second clip. In this way we easily get a sort of windlass quite strong enough for our purpose.
Provide a large blow-pipe, such as the blow-pipe of a Fletcher crucible furnace, Select a length of tubing and clean it. Lash one end to the cylinder by means of a bit of wire, and hold the other end out nearly horizontally. Then start the blow-pipe to play on the tube just where it runs on to the asbestos cylinder, and at first right up to the lashing. Get an attendant to assist in turning the handle of the windlass, always keeping his eye on the tube, and never turning so fast as to tilt the tube upwards. By means of the blow-pipe, which may be moved round the tubing, heat the latter continuously as it is drawn through the flame, and lay it on the cylinder in even spirals.
If the tubing is thin, a good deal of care will have to be exercised in order to prevent a collapse. A better arrangement, which, however, I have not yet tried, would, I think, be to replace the blow-pipe by two bats-wing burners, permanently fastened to a stand, one of them playing its flame downwards on to the top of the flame of the other. The angle between the directions of the jets might be, say, 130°, or whatever is found convenient. In this way the glass would not be so likely to get overheated in spots, and better work would doubtless result. However, I have made numbers of perfectly satisfactory spirals as described. Three or four turns only make a sufficiently springy connection for nearly all purposes.