T Bar: Metal "T" shaped mullions put into a frame opening to support glass panels that will be set one above the other. The T bars receive the weight of each panel and transfer it to the frame.
Tank: A large receptacle constructed in a furnace for melting the batch. Tanks replaced pots in larger glass factories in the 19th century.
Tapping: One technique used to break out a score. A ball-ended glass cutter is most often used. The ball is tapped under the score along its length to run it before breaking the piece out.
Template: A pattern for individual pieces of glass.
Textured Glass: Glass with an impressed pattern in the surface that creates a unique light pattern. The texture can be made by one or both rollers as hot glass passes through them
Thermal Shock: Cracking caused by uneven rapid heating or cooling of glass.
Tiefschnitt (German, "deep cut"): A method of engraving whereby the ornamentation is cut into the object and lies below the surface plane. The Italian name for this technique is Intaglio.
Tie Wires: Copper wires soldered to the panel and twisted around a saddle bar.
Tile Cutter: Tool used to score and cut ceramic tile. There are hand held and rail versions.
Tile Nipper: Special tool used to break or nibble away at tile in order to shape it.
Tinning: The act applying a thin coat of solder over a base metal like lead came, copper tape, wire, etc. Generally used to either stiffen or allow its color to be changed.
Tinning Bock: Another name for Sal Ammoniac Block. It is used to clean carbon build up from soldering iron tips.
Tints: Very lightly colored hues and tones of stained glass.
Tip: Term used for the end piece of a soldering iron where the solder is melted. Chisel tips are generally used for stained glass work and come in a variety of widths.
Torch: Device used in hot glass and beadmaking that mixes a specific fuel to produce the flame required to melt and work the glass.
Tracer: A special brush used in painting on glass.
Tracery: The stone framework in a gothic window.
Traditional: Design Motifs and styles handed down from one generation to another.
Trail: A strand of glass, roughly circular in section, drawn out from a gather.
Transept: The transverse section of a church crossing the main nave.
Translucent: Semitransparent, allowing the passage of light but not permitting a clear view.
Transmitted Light: Light that passes through transparent or translucent glass.
Transom Window: A window above a door.
Transparent: Admitting the passage of light with a clear view beyond.
Trefoil: (1) A small opening in Gothic tracery having three arcs. (2) A garland design with three loops.
Triptych: A picture, carving, etc. with three parts.
Twist: A type of decoration in the stems of 18th-century and later drinking glasses, made by twisting a glass rod embedded with threads of white or colored glass, columns of air (air twists), or a combination of all three.
Tympanum: The triangular space above a door, sometimes containing a window.
The sources for this material include:
•Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking.
Compiled by David Whitehouse, 88 pp., 47 illus., 1993
•How to Work in Stained Glass. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 247 pp., 1972
•Stained Glass Lamps. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 222 pp., 1972
•The Techniques of Stained Glass. Partrick Reyntiens, 168 pp. 1977
•The Coming Museum Website: www.cmog.org
• The Stained Glass Association of America Website: www.stainedglass.org
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