How do you make glass?

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Glass is one of the most important substances in our everyday life. Whether as window material, as a component of light bulbs and computer screens or in the form of a drinking glass, the hard, transparent material shapes our lives. However, glass has not only existed since modern times, the ancient Egyptians used the material and it even existed in pre-human times. But how do you actually make glass?

Glass also plays a major role in contemporary architecture.
Glass also plays a major role in contemporary architecture.

This is how the transparent material is made

  • Uncolored, transparent glass, which experts call soda-lime glass, is made on the basis of silicon oxide. This is a substance that you already know from your last beach vacation, namely quartz sand.
  • In addition to the quartz sand, a whole range of substances are added to the basic mixture, which ensure that the glass receives the desired optical and structural properties. The included substances include potash, lime and sodium carbonate, for example.
  • In a first production step, the material mixture is heated to almost 1500 ° C. As part of this warming, the structure of the mixture is standardized.
  • The production step that now follows is called "purification", but this has less to do with the purification of the soul than with that of the glass. In this phase, gas inclusions are eliminated as much as possible. As a rule, the purification takes place either by adding certain substances to the starting mixture or by introducing gases in a targeted manner. What sounds counterproductive has its purpose, because large gas bubbles can escape from the glass and take smaller inclusions with them.
  • Before the glass can be processed any further, it has to cool down. To do this, it flows into a so-called standing or working trough. From here it is portioned by a "feeder" and passed on to a shaping machine.
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Glass also occurs in nature

  • The oldest man-made glass finds date from around the 15th century. BC century. Finds of this age can be found in both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
  • But glass is by no means a human invention. There is also volcanic rock glass, which can be formed when lava cools down quickly, provided that it has only a small amount of water. Such volcanic glass, such as obsidian, was already used by humans in the Stone Age.

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