A friend recently used this term, which I had never heard before. Is this familiar to everyone but me (wouldn't be the first time)?

Here's something interesting, Jackie, on water glass:

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) :

Water glass \Water glass\
1. A clepsydra.

2. An instrument consisting of an open box or tube with a
glass bottom, used for examining objects in the water, as
upon the sea bottom in shallow places.

3. A water gauge for a steam boiler.




http://freedictionary.org/cgi-bin/Dictionary
Happy, happy, happy day today: You're back!

Best regards,
Wordwind

which water glass did they mean?

there is a chemical liquid--viscous, clear, and used as fireproofing.. some sort of silicon compound
Some one here with more chemistry will say exactly what what the compound is...

and there are waterglasses, a specific size/type glass that comes as part of a crystal set, and/or a specific glass made for water.--singular would be a waterglass.

i have the most exquisit italian glasses, in a cool translucent green, the glass is filled with very fine bubbles, so it looks effervenscent-- which are water glasses (and came as set with a pitcher.) there are one of the few family heirlooms i got.. from my great grandmother-- my great grand father brought them back from italy..in the 1870's. he was, as we like to say a stock broker, he traveled to the continent to buy the newest breeds of sheep, cattle and other stock!

Well, first we better get the spelling right. It's generally two words, not one, in referring to any kind of water glass.

This is a guess), but I would wager that Jackie didn't mean the water glass that's part of a formal place setting. Too easy.

I'll bet she's referring to either the water glass that measured time or the one for underwater observations.

Guess we'll have to wait till she returns, huh, of troy?

Bathymetric regards,
WaterWords

Dear Jackie: Waterglass used to be used to keep eggs from spoiling in old days.
It is a sodium silicate solution, very viscous but very transparent. I supose it
worked by preventing eggs from absorbing any oxygen.

URL:http://www.pqcorp.com/productlines/sodiumsilicatehome.asp

Present uses include


Adhesives and Binders
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Other
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A waterglass holds 8oz and is served with every meal to every one sitting here in Chi-towne restaurants before even ordering your meal... except for those huge glasses a group of us recently had at a "beer tasting symposium"... those were just to make up (however, falling short) for the then forthcoming dehydration.

I've never used a water glass before but I'm sure they're lots of fun. I didn't know that was what their name was either, it is obvious though, huh. The idea of the water clock really interests me (we're all budding horologists, huh?). I like the name clepsydra too (Gr: 'steal water'). I assume they were popular in Greece at some point, but clearly in China too. Apparently there are only very few working ones left. According to one link it was possibly the first means of time measurement to exist besides the very primitive and modestly accurate sun dial. I tried to find an illustration or photo, but found no pictures just this...

http://www.horology.com/htt-clep.html

Water glass is a distinct nomenclature in the restaurant business (in which I spent too many years) as pointed out by several folks here. A table setting always included a water glass (breakfast, lunch, or dinner). And in formal dinner settings there would be a water glass and a wine glass (turned upside-down, of course, so as not to collect dust, and they better be spotless, and don't ice them too soon or two late, and...too many years, like I said [sigh-e]).

WO'N:

Things are so dry here in Denver area that many restaurants will not provide you with a glass of water until you ask for it. There's apparently some talk of actually charging for a glass of water.

I'm reminded of the story of the two Jewish fellows who went into a retaurant. (The only reason they were Jewish for the purposes of this story was because the story was in one of Rosten's books (NO NOT THAT ROSTEN!!!))

Anyway, the waier asked them what they wanted. The first fellow said he'd start with a glass of water. The other one specified, "I'd like a glass of water in a clean glass." The waiter returned with a tray a couple of minutes later. "All right, gentlemen, which one of you wanted the clean glass?"

TEd

I'm trying to imagine how come Jackie never hear of a water glass before.

wwh:

I don't think it's a common water glass that Jackie hasn't heard of before. I suspect it is one of the more esoteric (to most) applications of the term!

You've got to be making one of your jokes again, you adolescent child!

Best regards,
WordWaterGlass

Dear WW: A long tima ago, my Grandmother brough my father a beautiful cut glass tumbler.
When he drank from it, a place that wouldn't let water out when glass was upright, let
a lot of water fall onto his necktie.
My father never said a word. The next year, when Grandma came to visit, when she sat
down, there was a very rude noise, that made her face turn scarlet. The cushion of her
chair was a large flat airbag, with a razzer attached.
Both items had been purchased at Daddy & Jacks, a joke store on Bromfield Street in
Boston. I wonder if that store is still there.

I suppose in Kentucky everybody drinks bourbon straight, and water glass would be
a dirty word.

Dear wwh,

Do you think that all that people ever drink in Kentucky is straight bourbon? Woo-whee! What a place to be! Yes, I do now see your logic in believing perhaps dear Jackie has never been exposed to water glasses. Silly me. I never considered the Kentucky factor!

For edification of the souls that happen by here, would you please inform us about what a "razzer" is? I've never heard of a "razzer," although I have heard of a "rasher" of bacon, which is something altogether different.

Best regards,
your fan,
WW

a very rude noise, that made her face turn scarlet. The cushion of her chair was a large flat airbag, with a razzer attached

Over here we'd call that a whoopee cushion Bill. Sure you'd wanted to know that .

Do you call making farty noises "blowing raspberries" over your side of the Pond? How about folk elsewhere (aloud)?

Blowing raspberries! Making farty sounds? Well, yes, as long as you blow 'em between your lips. I certainly hope blowing raspberries on your side of the pond, Fish, wouldn't be blowin' 'em with any other orifice!

[raspberry!]

WW

Mercy me, I should have returned sooner, methinks--what a scrap! Apparently, I wasn't the only one who'd not heard of it.
Dr. Bill had it right: I meant waterglass, not water glass.
Obviously, he had heard of it. The friend told me he used it to hold cardboard together when he made homemade fireworks many years ago. Now I have a couple more questions about it: was/is it a liquid, paste, or what? And...how did it come to be called waterglass? Oh! Silica...glass; water = liquid; = liquid glass??

I'd never heard of clepsydra, either; thanks for the elucidation, by.

tsuwm: hi! [shy smile e]

Razzberry, Bronx cheer. Other names I have forgotten. A party favor, a half inch wooden tube, with
very flexible latex tube covering one end and moulded into flattened end that vibrates when air
is blown throught the wooden mouthpiece. Indecent anal sphincter duplication. Fortunately no
olfactory component. Reminds me of banana ooat shortwave operator when I was ten years old.
He was enormously obese, and was taking Kruschen Salts, an over-the-counter weight reduction
nostrum, containing a mixture of sulfate compounds, that his digestive tract turned into H2S. When
his wife told him where she wanted to sit in theatre, he would slroll down, aoundlessly lay down
an interdictory gas barrage. Very soon twenty people would hurriedly seek different seats.
If it hadn't been silent, he would have been beaten to a pulp.

Aw, gee, and I had a story all ready to explain why Jackie never drinks water.
She owns a priceless replica of the Mannekin pis, with inscription
"Ne bouvez jamais d'eau!" For a photo, use URL and scroll down a quarter of the way

http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk/pa09/europetrip/brussels/brussels1.htm

Things are so dry here in Denver area that many restaurants will not provide you with a glass of water until you ask for it. There's apparently some talk of actually charging for a glass of water.

Same here in Jersey, TEd. Drought's so bad my tomatoes stopped growing. We got back our lawn and garden-watering (every other day) about 4 weeks ago...the lawn you can let go. But it's so dry that if you let the garden go over a day it all starts drooping badly, so the garden plants have got to get a daily drink. My cucumbers didn't even come up for the first time ever (oops...somebody's gonna run with that one ). Still no car washing allowed. And people weren't even allowed to refill their pools till the end of May when we got about a week of moisture (but not enough). Just before all the fires out West got started we had a big one here in the Pine Barrens in Ocean/Atlantic counties....actually closed down the Garden State Parkway.

Calling all rain dancers!!!

Reminds me of the storyof the pretty lady who was walking through her neighborhood when she saw a garden with the most beautiful shiny red tomatoes she'd ever seen. She asked the guy how he did it. He laughed and said, "Oh, I just come out at night and expose myself to them. They blush really red, don't you think?"

The pretty lass said perhaps she'd try that. A couple of weeks later she walked by the guy's house again and he asked her how her tomatoes were doing. "Not getting red like your," she replied, "but you should see my cucumbers."

you should see my cucumbers



I reckon I may even remember this story, TEd, given the vivid visuals!

Ohhhhh...so that's how I can get my cucumbers to grow! Thanks, TEd!