Glass Float Collecting

Glass Float Collecting is the pursuit of gathering glass fishing floats, hollow glass spheres and cylinders once used around the world to keep fishing nets, longlines and droplines afloat. Norway pioneered them, with the earliest recorded production entered in the 1842 registry of Hadeland Glassverk and credited to Bergen merchant Christopher Faye; Norwegian cod fisheries were already using them by 1844. Japan later adopted the technology and, through its extensive deep-sea fishing industry, became the main later source of floats. Largely displaced today by other materials, genuine floats set loose by broken nets still drift on Pacific currents and wash up on North American and Pacific beaches, where beachcombers and decorators collect the originals, and commercially made replicas are now sold to meet collector demand.