Glass Floats

Glass Floats

Glass floats were used by fishermen to suspend nets in the water.

From Wikipedia;

“Norway was the first country to start production and use of glass fishing floats around 1840, many of which can still be found in local boathouses. Christopher Faye, a Norwegian merchant from Bergen, is credited for their invention. The glass float was developed through cooperation with one of the owners of the Hadeland Glassverk in Norway, Chr. Berg.

The first time these ”modern” glass fishing floats are mentioned is in the production registry for Hadelands Glassverk in 1841. The registry clearly shows that this is a new type of production. However, there might have been some other versions of glass floats in use before that time. In the early 19th century, the Schimmelmanns Glassverk (1779–1832) produced dark brown and very thick, bottle glass floats. Floats from this production are found in the ground where this factory was located, but are unmarked.

The earliest evidence of glass floats being used by fishermen comes from Norway in 1844 where small egg-sized floats were used with fishing line and hooks. Around the same time, glass was also used to support fishing nets. By the 1940s, glass had replaced wood or cork throughout much of Europe, Russia, North American, and Japan. Japan started using the glass floats as early as 1910. Today, most of the remaining glass floats originated in Japan because it had a large deep sea fishing industry which made extensive use of the floats; some made by Taiwan, Korea and China. Glass floats have since been replaced by aluminum, plastic, or Styrofoam.”

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