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Glass is naturally formed when certain types of rocks melt as a result of high-
temperatures such as volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes or the impact of
meteorites, and then cools and solidify rapidly.
Glass beads are thought to be the earliest man-made glass they were mainly
opaque and are thought to date back to around 3500 BC. They have been found
in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. The oldest fragments of glass vases date
back to 1600 BC and were found in Mesopotamia.
The first glassmaking manual dates back to around 650 BC. A major
breakthrough in glassmaking was the discovery of glassblowing some time
between 27 BC and AD 14, attributed to Syrian craftsmen. The long thin metal
tube used in the blowing process has changed very little since then.
In 1688, in France, a new method was developed for the production of plate
glass, principally for use in mirrors, whose optical merits had, until then, left
much to be desired. The molten glass was poured onto a special table and rolled
out flat. After cooling, the plate glass was ground on large round tables by
means of rotating cast iron discs and increasingly fine abrasive sands, and then
polished using felt disks. The result of this plate pouring process was flat glass
with good optical transmission qualities. When coated on one side with a
reflective metal high-quality mirrors could be produced.
It was not until the later stages of the Industrial Revolution that mechanical
technology for mass production and in-depth scientific research into the
relationship between the composition of glass and its physical qualities began to
appear in the industry.
A key figure and one of the forefathers of contemporary glass research was the
German scientist Otto Schott, who used scientific methods to study the effects of
various chemical elements on the optical and thermal properties of glass. In the
field of optical glass, Schott teamed up with Ernst Abbe, to make important
technological advances.
In the production of flat glass the first real innovation came in 1905 when a
Belgian, (Fourcault), managed to vertically draw a continuous sheet of glass of a
consistent width from the tank. Commercial production of sheet glass using the
Fourcault process eventually got under way in 1914. An off-shoot of evolution in
flat glass production was the strengthening of glass by means of lamination.
The float process developed after 1945 by Pilkington combined the brilliant finish
of sheet glass with the optical qualities of plate glass.
Now glass production has taken another great leap forward, privacy glass is the
newest and currently most upmarket glass available. With only a touch of a
remote control or the turn of a dial the glass can be made to change opacity.
New glass windows on office blocks can be set to let in less light as the sun
becomes stronger saving on air-conditioning costs.