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Glass is one of the most versatile - and most misunderstood 
- materials used in the world. Glass can be used for everything from eyeglasses to bottles, windows to the 'glassphalt' you find on the road. Many products called "glass" are actually ceramics and have entirely different manufacturing process than the glass we know.
The ancient Romans made flat glass by rolling out hot glass on a smooth surface. Glass was quite a luxury at the time and only the rich could afford it. By 1668, San Gobain had perfected a "broad glass" method of manufacture that involved blowing long glass cylinders, slitting them and unrolling them to form an almost-flat rectangle. This plate glass was then ground and polished on both sides.
By the late 1800s, glass was being made by blowing a very large cylinder and allowing it to cool before it was cut with a diamond. After being reheated in a special oven, it was flattened and affixed to piece of polished glass which preserved its surface. In 1871, a gentleman named William Pilkington invented a machine that allowed larger sheets of glass to be made. It was the first of a number of marvelous glass-related inventions to come from the Pilkington family.
Manufacturing processes did not change much until 1959 when the float glass process began. In the float process, a continuous strip of molten glass at approximately 1000 degrees centigrade is poured from the furnace onto a bath of molten metal, usually tin.
The glass floats and cools on the tin and spreads out to form a flat surface. Today more than 90 percent of the world's flat glass is made via the float process.
Anyone had any experiences with this substance?
- materials used in the world. Glass can be used for everything from eyeglasses to bottles, windows to the 'glassphalt' you find on the road. Many products called "glass" are actually ceramics and have entirely different manufacturing process than the glass we know. The ancient Romans made flat glass by rolling out hot glass on a smooth surface. Glass was quite a luxury at the time and only the rich could afford it. By 1668, San Gobain had perfected a "broad glass" method of manufacture that involved blowing long glass cylinders, slitting them and unrolling them to form an almost-flat rectangle. This plate glass was then ground and polished on both sides.
By the late 1800s, glass was being made by blowing a very large cylinder and allowing it to cool before it was cut with a diamond. After being reheated in a special oven, it was flattened and affixed to piece of polished glass which preserved its surface. In 1871, a gentleman named William Pilkington invented a machine that allowed larger sheets of glass to be made. It was the first of a number of marvelous glass-related inventions to come from the Pilkington family.
Manufacturing processes did not change much until 1959 when the float glass process began. In the float process, a continuous strip of molten glass at approximately 1000 degrees centigrade is poured from the furnace onto a bath of molten metal, usually tin.
The glass floats and cools on the tin and spreads out to form a flat surface. Today more than 90 percent of the world's flat glass is made via the float process.Anyone had any experiences with this substance?
I can tell you are a big glass, fan...as am I!
, but when they were, consumers were quick to appreciate them. By 1970, aluminium had taken over more than 20% of the beverage can market from steel. In 1977, more than half the cans were made of aluminium and, in 1994, the share of aluminium cans increased to over 96% for beer and soft drinks. 
...GO THE GLASS BONGS 
