I thought about light bulbs, but it seems unlikely to me that worker housing in a mining town in the mountains would have been wired for electricity so early. The place was abandoned in the 1890s. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 2, 2013, at 2:13 PM, sent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> although your date is earlier I would check electronic tubes for radios etc....
> lightbulbs also possible
> also insulator
> have fun
> 
> Conrad
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Doug Ross
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 1:28 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: clear glass tubes
> 
> Could they be from the inside of a light bulb?
> 
> Doug
> 
> On 2013-02-02, at 10:19, Sarah Sportman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I'm trying to identify a few artifacts we recovered from back yard contexts in a 19th century mining town in the Adirondacks.  We found six fragments of thin, clear glass tubes. They are a little smaller in diameter than a modern drinking straw and round in cross-section.  All are broken and each fragment is less than 3 inches long.  The fragments came from the yards of three different domestic sites, including a tenement house, a double house, and the superintendent's house. The sites were occupied from the mid 1870s to the mid 1890s.  Any help in identifying them would be greatly appreciated!
>> 
>> thanks,
>> Sarah