Patent ID: 8117868

Claim:
A method of making glass with an apparatus comprising a first glass melt station, a glass melt conduit, and a standpipe, wherein the standpipe includes a first end portion in fluid communication with the glass melt conduit and a gravity trap positioned within a fluid path defined between the first end portion and a second end portion of the standpipe, the method comprising the steps of: providing the first glass melt station with glass melt such that a quantity of the glass melt travels through the fluid path from the first end portion to the second end portion to define a glass surface within the standpipe; sensing a condition of a quantity of glass melt within the standpipe at the second end portion of the standpipe; and inhibiting formed impurities from traveling through the fluid path from the second end portion of the standpipe to the first end portion of the standpipe with the gravity trap by positioning the gravity trap within the fluid path and at a lower elevation relative to the first end portion and the second end portion of the standpipe.