"Oh, I don't wear contact lenses," I say.
"Great. When the tests are very aggressive tiny shards can still fly off."
It's Dr. Betty Gallo job at the Corning plant to push the latest glass to its limits. A new Pyrex glass shaped like Betty Boop?
"That was us! Well we just used a demo royalty free cat at first but we proved we could do it. All those angles."
Dr. Gallo walks me down a catwalk over a regular din of thuds and partial shatters. Every so often its a "dung--crink" She even wear a lab coat over a hot pink blazer. No shoulder pads, however.
She still has a hint of loopy Minnesota accent in her, testament to a previous life there including a gig at 3M fibers.
Today is a Smash Day. Dr. Gallo and her team are researchers so most days are spreadsheets and models. But on a Smash day (They happen every 6 months) people can let all frustrations go unhinged.
Her team is bouncing new glass wares off varying surfaces to test durability. Break patterns. Chipping. "It's a supply chain issue. Cost too. We make a funny pattern on the glass like say paint it and everything is thrown off."
When loading the rockets for Apollo missions NASA accounts for everything to the weight of the freeze dried ice cream. One more set of dehydrated eggs and could the launch be sent on a collision course. Same for the glass. "Add soemthing obvious to you measuring dish like say a handle and we have all sorts of angles," said Dr. Gallo. We had just reached the armory.
Baseball bat, wooden.
"Beacuse now it can break different where it lands and how. Can the handle reverberate that shocks back into the glass?"
Cricket bat. In Upstate NY?
"Oh watch out this can be heavy"
20 pbs sledgehammer
She has it all. Ball bearings and rubber bands. Hammers with wooden and synthetics shafts a Dremmel drill.
Collapsible batons like police use. The "shiinnnnk" noise they make on opening is beyond satisfying.
"Everything but guns," she smiles and closes the now empty closet. "That needs some more control"
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