Up: Glassmaking
How It Is Made
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Chapter VIII.
THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS.
A story: how glass was discovered-- Constituents of glass-
Glass-making-- A tank furnace-- Shaping glass-- Blowing bottles--
Window-glass-- Large sheets-- Rolling plate-glass-- Pressing glass--
A stopper-making machine.
According to a well-known story, glass was discovered by some Phœnician
sailors as the result of lighting a big wood fire on the seashore. The
wood-ash united with the sand under the influence of the heat, and much to
the sailors' surprise, when they scattered the fire they found below it a
clear, translucent substance, of which they at once recognized the value.
From a purely chemical point of view the story is
plausible enough, as sand supplies silicon, the foundation material of glass,
and wood-ash contains an alkaline "base" necessary to give transparency; but
the manufacturer, who knows that intense heat¹ is needed to fuse the
materials that go to the
¹For some glasses 13,000° F.
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