Hand-blown carboy

Hi folks- strange topic, I know- my mother, bless her heart, knows how much I've been enjoying homebrewing. She was at a second hand store today and found an old carboy for $12.99 and grabbed it for me. She just brought it by and dropped it off.

It looks to be hand-blown- there are bubbles and slight imperfections (nothing structurally compromising) in it, and you can see the marks on the bottom where the glass was cut from the piece while still hot. All the carboys I've seen look to be factory made, and this one seems to be made by hand or at least with less automation than most.

There's a logo on the bottom that looks like crackled leaves or just an abstract pattern of lines, and in the center, a logo of an I inside an O.

Anyone seen one like this? I'm curious about it, because I've never seen one like it- I'm not even sure exactly how much it holds, although it looks to be a five-gallon.

I have at least one exactly like that.don't even remember where it came from. BTW see the lines up the sides.. I don't think it is a blown glass one.

I found this from over here: http://www.myinsulators.com/glass-factories/bottlemarks2.html

I within an "O".......Owens-Illinois Glass Company (recently re-named simply "O-I"), formerly headquartered at Toledo, OH, now Perrysburg, Ohio. Approximately 25 glass manufacturing locations in the US and Canada, with the most recently opened plant at Windsor, Colorado. (1929-to date), this mark used c. 1954 to the present. The diamond was removed from the "old" mark (diamond superimposed over an "I" and an "O" or oval) beginning around 1954, although some bottle molds apparently didn't have the diamond eliminated (i.e., the mold re-engraved) until as late as 1958. (However, I have a soda bottle in my collection with the "old" mark, dated 1959!) After 1958 the great majority of O-I bottles carried the "new" simplified mark of just an I inside an O. On recent bottles, this mark may be small, faint, and not always easily discernable, usually seen embossed on the heel of the container. O-I is presently (2011) the largest glassmaking corporation in the world. A wide variety of glass containers are made, primarily for food and beverage products.

Looks like it could have been made in the 50's. Which would be cool, if true, but it's more likely to be more recent.

i have one just like that too.

Well, then it's not as strange as I thought. I thought the marks on the bottom were indicative of age, but it turns out is something associated with O-I's manufacturing process.

Cyclometh said:

Well, then it's not as strange as I thought. I thought the marks on the bottom were indicative of age, but it turns out is something associated with O-I's manufacturing process.

Click to expand...

Also I doubt it was hand blown. The seam that runs up the side is indicative of some kind of mold. I still think it is cool though.

Seems to be a water cooler jug. I've seen some clear, some with a blueish tint. There was someone selling a whole mess of them a year or so ago real cheap...gas to pick them up would have been more than the price.
12 bux was a decent price but it isn't an antique or hand blown. I do like the straight sides.
-cheers

Yeah, after further research it's done in a mold. I thought the bubbles and the imperfections were indicative of at least a semi-manual process. Ah well, it's still cool, as you say.

Those water jugs are a 5 gal size btw. The bubbles are in pretty much every carboy, it seems to be just part of the process.
-cheers