Page 13 - The Science of Glass

Then, in the mid-fifteenth century,
a chemist in Venice named Angelo
Barovier invented the process to make
clear glass. The glass was called cristallo.
He ground up quartz pebbles instead
of using sand. His recipe and other
methods were secret. Glassblowers could cristallo vase
be put to death if they shared them!

Glassblowers in other countries
learned from the Italians. Soon, glass
spread around the world. British settlers
built the first glass factory in the New
World in 1607.

At the start of the twentieth century, a
glassmaker invented the first automatic
glassblowing machine. It could make
240 glass bottles a minute! Glass items quartz pebbles
were now cheaper to make. More people
could afford to buy things made of glass.

Technology

Fiery Furnaces

A glassblower uses three furnaces to heat
glass. The first contains a crucible to hold
the molten glass. A crucible is a container
that can withstand high temperatures. In
the second furnace, the glassblower reheats
a piece of glass while working with it. The
third furnace is used to slowly cool glass so it
doesn’t break. Ancient glassblowers relied on
wood to fuel their fires, but today’s furnaces
often use gas.

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