Glass is one of the oldest materials known to man. Now almost any shape and size is possible. Around 4000 BC. glazed pottery with a smooth glassy coating appeared. The first glassware dates back to 1500 BC.

Glass was also brewed in Kievan Rus. However, the Mongol-Tatar yoke stopped the development of glass production for several centuries, and again it was revived in Russia in the 17th century based on the traditions of European glassmaking.

In 1634-39, in the village of Dukhanino near Moscow, the Swedish master Julius Koyet built the first glass factory, which produced window glass and apothecary glassware.

In 1669, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a glass factory was built in Izmailovo. Luxurious items for the royal court were produced here. Particularly valued at that time were “amusing” vessels made by foreign masters and their Russian students in the traditions of thin and elegant Venetian glass. The “cracker” cups were distinguished by intricate moldings and were equipped with a system of hollow rods with their own secret.

With the emergence of the new capital, the center of glass production moved to St. Petersburg. In the first half of the 18th century, several factories already existed here: Yamburg and Zhabinsky near St. Petersburg, and in the early 1730s a factory was built in the capital itself. St. Petersburg factories produced mainly tall ceremonial goblets made of colorless glass, decorated with matte engravings with images of portraits of reigning persons, with coats of arms and monograms, with all kinds of emblems, with floral ornaments.” The decorative effect of the products was enhanced by gilding.

Many achievements of Russian glassmaking are associated with the discovery of colored glass. The recipe was developed by M.V. Lomonosov at the Ust-Ruditsk factory, and then this technology spread to all factories in Russia. By the end of the 18th century, ruby, blue, violet, green, turquoise, marble and milk glass were in fashion. For painting, oxides of various metals were mainly used. Ruby glass, which had shades from delicate pink to scarlet, was especially valued. Gold was added to its composition for coloring. Products made from colored glass were painted with gold and silver.

In the 18th century, milk glass, which externally resembles porcelain and, in essence, imitates it, was also considered a variety of colored glass. Sometimes milk glass was dense, “thick,” but more often translucent glass was produced, having a soft, luminous surface. This gave a special luminosity to the polychromy of the enamel painting with which it was decorated. The heyday of artistic glassmaking in Russia occurred in the first third of the 19th century. Newly invented colorless lead crystal appeared, which had a special brilliance, transparency and hardness.

Thick-walled vessels began to be decorated with deep carvings. The different geometric shapes were reminiscent of the processing of precious stones. Hence the name - diamond edge. Crystal products were distinguished by their solemnity and monumentality. At this time, the Imperial Factory in St. Petersburg produced large vases framed in gilded bronze, floor lamps several meters high, and chandeliers for decorating the capital's palaces.

Glass appeared painted with transparent enamels (as opposed to the opaque enamels of the 18th century). Various household items:

Bottles, glasses, ink utensils, decanters;

Decorated with carvings and gilding, thanks to the translucent delicate painting with enamels, they acquired a charming, intimate character.

Curious are the products decorated with printed designs - portraits of members of the royal family, scenes of historical, mythological, and literary subjects. A similar technique subsequently became widely used in the production of mass products.

Products made of two, and sometimes three-layer glass of various colors were processed by grinding, removing one layer at a time. A multi-colored ornament appeared on the surface.

Even in the 19th century, the Imperial Factory produced large, technically complex works that required high skill from glassblowers and decorative artists. A typical example is a dark green vase, consisting of two parts held together by a rod. Gold painting in the neo-Greek style fashionable at that time.

In the second half of the 19th century, some factories producing highly artistic products reduced production as unprofitable. Enterprises that produce cheaper, mass-produced products succeed. These are primarily the Dyatkovo and Gus Khrustalny factories, as well as the Maltsov factories.

The color plate shows only a few examples of glassware made by Russian craftsmen.

K category: Glass materials

Brief history of glass in Russia

When considering the possibility of using glass in construction and methods of its manufacture, it is necessary to at least briefly become acquainted with the history of glass and its use in buildings of previous eras.

Glass is one of the materials used since ancient times: pure glass in the form of a cast amulet in the color of rich azure is found around 7000 BC.

Transparent glass appeared much later and was relatively rare. Glass was used primarily for making all kinds of decorations; The difficulty of manufacturing and processing transparent glass led to the fact that the cost of products made from such glass differed little from the cost of precious stones. Glass began to be used later for the manufacture of hollow vessels and small vases. The method of producing these valuable items was passed down from generation to generation.

The invention of the glass blowing tube is one of the great discoveries of mankind. This discovery transformed glass from a luxury item into a consumer item and allowed the creation of many different glass products.

The glass blowing tube was a hollow iron tube equipped with a head on one side. In the process of blowing this or that product, the worker immersed the head of the tube into the molten mass of glass, onto which a certain amount of molten glass with high viscosity stuck. By blowing air through a mouthpiece, a glass flask was formed, which gradually, by shaking and rotating, as well as using simple tools and heating the cooling mass of glass, turned into a hollow vessel of an almost strictly symmetrical shape. This method, which was used for many centuries, also produced elegant glass products.

Rice. 1. Painted glass in the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary

Until recently, the prevailing belief was that the origin of glass production in Rus' dates back to the 17th century. However, studies of the development of crafts in ancient Rus' carried out by the USSR Academy of Sciences showed that the glass products discovered in the burial mounds of the 10th-12th centuries were not imported (as was previously assumed), but were made locally1. This is confirmed by the results of excavations in Kyiv, which proved that there were glass-making workshops in Kievan Rus.

Glass bracelets and rings are common finds in ancient Russian cities. Thousands of fragments of bracelets and rings found during excavations are evidence of their mass production. There is reason to believe that these glass products appeared in the 10th century. The bracelets were made from glass strands, folded into a ring while hot and welded where the ends were fastened. During excavations of cities (especially southern ones) in layers dating back to the 11th-13th centuries, glass glasses of a standard shape were found, which also confirms the correctness of the assumption about their mass production. These glasses were made by blowing.

Until recently, glass beads, discovered in large quantities during excavations of burial mounds, were considered evidence of extensive foreign trade relations of ancient Rus', since the technique of making beads was allegedly not known here. However, this assumption is unfounded, since the technique of making glass beads is no more complicated than the technique of making rings and bracelets.

The production of glass products should be considered an urban craft, which became widespread in some cities of Rus'. The widespread development of glass production in ancient Rus' was based on the local rich reserves of raw materials necessary for the production of glass products of various types and colors. Compound materials in the form of fine river sand, potash (from plant ash), table salt and lime were available in unlimited quantities in Rus'.

Glass was colored using copper oxide (green), copper oxide with the addition of clay (bluish-green), sulfur and coal (yellow), iron oxide (smoky yellow) and manganese oxide (purple). These colors almost completely exhausted the color range of Russian glass products of the 10th-13th centuries.

Rice. 2. Portrait of Peter I

Rice. 3. Painting “Battle of Poltava”

Data on the use of glass in the 14th century. appear in the chronicle of the Mamai massacre, where it is said that when Dmitry Donskoy went on a campaign against Mamai, his wife Evdokia cried “under the glass window.” This is also evidenced by the order of Ivan IV (XVI century), who ordered to buy in Novgorod “windowed glass of different colors, as much as possible, and they would send the glass to us in Moscow.”

Beautifully executed mosaics in architectural monuments of the 11th century. (in Kyiv) are proof of the use of colored opaque glass (in the form of smalt) as a decorative means.

The first glass factory in Russia was built in 1635 in the wasteland of Dukhanino, Dmitrovsky district, near Moscow. Later, in 1669, another plant was built with treasury funds in the village of Izmailovo. Glass production received especially great development in the era of Peter I (early 18th century), who created an exemplary factory-school on the Sparrow Hills in Moscow. Of greater artistic interest are the glass in the windows of Russian churches of the 16th and 17th centuries, painted with fireproof, indelible transparent paints. In Fig. Figure 1 shows a fragment of a window (XVII century) with painted glass in the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in the village of Pokrovskoye in Fili. The dimensions of the glass in the windows are 13.5X9 cm; they are inserted into a metal frame with small holes for the glass.

Rice. 5. Fragment of the painting “Battle of Poltava”

A huge role in the development of glass production in Russia belongs to the great Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov. Long-term theoretical and experimental work of M. V. Lomonosov at a specially built experimental Ust-Rudnitsky plant, which produced mosaic smalt, beads, glass beads, as well as various products made of colored glass, along with the hot propaganda of M. V. Lomonosov about the great importance of glass in development economy and culture of the country, contributed to raising domestic glass production to a high level. M.V. Lomonosov, with his characteristic genius, set himself a task of enormous scientific significance: “to find compositions for glasses and give the corresponding theory of colors, because it is still very insufficient in physics, and also for the purpose of exercise in the mentioned chemical works and for the Academy of Arts, so that among other pictorial arts it would include mosaic art, for which Rome alone was famous.”

Rice. 6. Crystal vase in honor of the capture of Kazan

It should be noted that M.V. Lomonosov coped with these tasks perfectly. The factory, having received an order for mosaic paintings and portraits in 1760, under the leadership and with the direct participation of M.V. Lomonosov, created a number of mosaic portraits. The portrait of Peter I (1854), measuring 89X69 cm, now kept in the Russian culture department of the State Hermitage (Fig. 2), deserves special attention. A few years later, M.V. Lomonosov completed the famous mosaic on the theme of the Battle of Poltava, on which he worked for just over two years. The size of this mosaic is 4.81 X 6.44 m (Fig. 3 and 4).

Rice. 7. Vase and glass made of colored opaque glass

Having completed Lomonosov's course in glass science, his students became major masters. For example, Pyotr Druzhinin in 1753 organized the production of colored crystals, which quickly gained worldwide fame, and Matvey Vasiliev and Efim Melnikov became famous for their work in the mosaic business.

The name of M.V. Lomonosov is also associated with the method of hot pressing of glass developed for the first time in Russia. Among Lomonosov’s “mosaic samples” that have come down to us, we were able to discover tetrahedral bars made on the machine of the great Russian scientist. The study of these bars showed that M.V. Lomonosov, for the first time in the history of glassmaking, used the method of hot pressing of glass, the priority of which was still attributed to Western scientists

A very interesting and patriotic assessment of the state of glass production in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. is given by the Russian economist Ivan Tikhonov-Pososhkov (d. in 1726), who wrote: “And as we have things in Rus', such as glassware, mirrors, glasses, window glass, then we need to manage all of them as our own, but with foreigners “Don’t buy any of those things at half price.”

There is every indication that it was during this period that Russia exported some types of glass products abroad. In 1744, the Russian government decided to organize porcelain production, which was kept strictly secret by foreign specialists. This difficult task was entrusted to M. V. Lomonosov’s fellow student at the Theological Academy D. I. Vinogradov. D. I. Vinogradov’s long-term experiments in testing various clays, as well as the help of M. V. Lomonosov, brought long-awaited results: D. I. Vinogradov gave his country one of the best porcelains in the world.

In the second half of the 18th century. large Bakhmetyev factories were built (now the Red Giant plant in the Penza region) and Maltsev factories (now Gus-Khrustalny in the Vladimir region). These factories achieved high skill and became famous for producing crystal products of exceptional beauty, as well as “golden ruby” - glass with an admixture of gold for coloring. Some samples of glass products manufactured by the Bakhmetyev factories are shown in Fig. 5, a and b.

Wide development of glass production in Russia in the 18th century. made it possible to significantly expand the scope of application of glass and glass products. Glass in the form of beautiful quality mirrors, pilasters, chandeliers, floor lamps, sconces, girandoles, etc. has found various and successful applications in the palaces of St. Petersburg and its environs. At the same time, furniture appeared, first made with individual elements made of glass, and later entirely of glass (stools and a table in the palace of Pushkin).

The works of M. V. Lomonosov and his student Matvey Vasiliev in the field of mosaics were studied by the Academy of Arts. At the same time, the durability of colored glass mosaics was revealed with undeniable convincing, which was of great importance when arranging the interior decoration of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The large scale of the work (the area of ​​the entire mosaic used for St. Isaac's Cathedral is about 593 m2) required the organization of a special mosaic workshop at the Academy of Arts. Russian mosaic artists Alekseev, Barukhin, Khmelevsky, Lebedev and others created highly artistic works that have gained well-deserved fame.

Rice. 8. Solid glass stained glass

The rapid development of capitalism in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. led to the fact that already in 1879 there were 173 glass factories in the country. On the verge of the 19th and 20th centuries. With the advent of improved and high-performance automatic glass-forming machines that produce cheap sheet glass, glass production is entering the path of industrial development. This made it possible to widely use stained glass windows in the architecture of that time, the designs of which reflected features typical of the decadent Art Nouveau style that dominated architecture at that time (Fig. 7). The use of glass floors dates back to the same time, samples of which are shown in Fig. 8.

Improvement of factory equipment made it possible to produce new types of glass products: glass with high mechanical strength, unbreakable glass, signal lenses for automatic blocking, bulbs for radio tubes, heat-resistant dishes, etc.

However, the task of mass production of new types of glass products could not be completely solved without the widespread introduction of mechanization of the technological process into the glass industry. This turned out to be possible only after the Great October Socialist Revolution. The creation of new mechanized factories with the latest technology (Dagestansky, Konstantinovsky, Dzerzhinsky, etc.), as well as the reconstruction of most of the large existing enterprises, ensured significant growth in glass production and expanded the range of products in accordance with the requirements of industrialization of construction. Stalin's five-year plans re-equipped the glass industry and turned it from a backward to an advanced branch of the national economy. Suffice it to say that the USSR occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of the quantity of glass products produced, and surpasses the United States in the production of window glass.

Rice. 9. Vertical method of pulling glass tape on the left - installation diagram; on the right is a general view of the installation in progress

Rice. 10. Manufacturing of rolled glass using a continuous machine

Soviet scientists, production innovators, and Stakhanovites contributed a lot of new and original things to glass production, thereby contributing to the successful development of this important sector of the national economy. Improvement in the design of a glass blowing device, which in many cases makes it possible to mechanize the process of blowing glass products, the invention of a machine for producing glass tubes (darts), the production of glass fibers and fabrics, the invention of foam glass - all this characterizes the great achievements of research work widely carried out in the USSR in the field of production glass

The almost universal availability of raw materials (sand, limestone, dolomite and natural sodium sulfates), local fuels (peat, firewood), as well as the relatively insignificant energy requirement of glass production create all the conditions for the further development of this industry and, in particular, for the expansion range of architectural and construction glass.

The types of glass currently used in construction are produced by vertically pulling (through a forming slot - a “boat” in a fireclay float) a continuous glass ribbon from a pool filled with molten glass (Fig. 9). In 1948, Soviet scientists developed a new method for drawing a ribbon of glass from the free surface of molten glass. In this way, ordinary window glass is produced, which is widely used in modern construction of industrial, residential and public buildings.

In addition, glass is produced by casting and rolling (Fig. 10) on casting tables or on a roller conveyor. The glass obtained in this way, depending on the nature of the surface treatment, is divided into a number of grades, the classification of which is given below.

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History of glass in architecture and methods of its production

“The history of architecture is the history of the struggle for windows,” said the great architect and designer Le Corbusier in 1929. Therefore, it is clear what a huge significance the invention of glass and its subsequent use in construction had.

Glass was already known in the 9th century BC. e. The center of glassmaking at that time was Alexandria.

Speaking about the history of the use of glass in construction, we will talk mainly about the blowing method and the processes that follow it.

Glass of ancient Rome

The Roman conquest of Judea in 63 paved the way for glass to reach Rome. The Romans were the first to use glass in construction.

Before the invention of glass, thin horn plates, mica, bull's bladders, oiled paper, etc. were inserted into windows, and in some places they were simply left open. These window glass substitutes could be found among the poor until the mid-19th century.

A revolution in the glassmaking process was made by the discovery of the glass blowing method, which made it possible to further process glass. The glass blowing method made it possible, in subsequent processes, to unfold the glass into a sheet and thus obtain sheet glass, window glass.

The Roman Lactantius first mentioned window glass at the end of the 3rd century. It is believed that the blowing method was proposed by Syrian craftsmen who lived in Babylon. This happened between 27 BC and 14 AD. For blowing, they used a thin metal tube, which has remained virtually unchanged to this day.

In Alexandria, around 100 AD, they found a way to produce transparent glass by adding manganese oxide to it.

With the production of transparent glass, the first glass windows appeared. And although at that time they had poor optical properties, they were considered a sign of luxury. Cicero said: “Poor is he whose home is not decorated with glass.”

Archaeological excavations have shown that the first truly flat glass, and therefore the first glass windows, first began to appear in the most important buildings of Rome and the most luxurious villas of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

In museums in Italy, glass from Roman houses measuring 30*30 cm has been preserved, and in Pompeii, during excavations of a bathhouse, a window with a bronze frame was inserted into which frosted glass measuring 100*70 cm and 13 mm thick was inserted.

Ancient Roman glass was of very poor quality. It was either matte or tinted greenish and contained a large number of bubbles. This color was given to the glass by the impurities that were part of its composition.

However, despite the poor quality, this was the first purposeful use of glass in architecture. We can say that from that time on, glass associated itself with architecture and construction forever. And this connection gave a significant acceleration to the development of glass production.

Glass of Western Europe

With the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (476) and the emergence of barbarian German states on its ruins, glassmaking in Europe fell into decline. However, it is restored and receives serious development with the emergence of the Venetian Republic (607).

On the island of Torcello in the Venetian Lagoon, the remains of a glass workshop remain. Mosaic glass and simple vessels, mainly cups and bottles, were made here.

Glassblowing workshops immediately appeared in Venice and by the 9th century it successfully began to compete with Byzantium. Although, as you know, Venetian craftsmen developed their own secrets of glass compositions and methods. The Venetian mosaics and stained glass windows that decorate churches in Venice itself and throughout Northern Italy are well known.

After the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders (1204), Venice remained the only world center of glassmaking.

In 1330, the Frenchman Cockeray found a way to produce flat glass. The hot glass melt was taken onto the tip of a special tube and spun until a glass “pancake” was obtained. The “pancake” was then cut to the required size and we got window glass.

The method for producing such glass was called “lunar” - because of the shape of the resulting pancake. But this method had many disadvantages, the main ones being the large waste of glass when cutting and the presence of a tubercle from the glass blowing tube in the center of the glass.

Sometimes, when using “moon” glass of small diameter, the lead sashes of the window were made round. This reduced glass waste and made it cheaper. But still, the cost of glass windows was very high. Therefore, the “lunar method” was supplanted by the so-called “holyavny” method, which made it possible to produce flat window glass of good quality.

There are cases when glass was inserted into the windows only during the arrival of the owners of the castles. After the owners left, they were taken out.

“Holyava” is a long glass cylinder that was blown by a glassmaker. It could reach 3 meters in length and up to 45 cm in width. Then the top and bottom of the cylinder (while hot) were cut off, the cylinder itself was cut to length and laid on a flat slab, which was placed in the oven. There the glass sheet was leveled. A hot iron rod was used to cut glass.

Diamond was only used for cutting glass in the sixteenth century.

In medieval Western Europe, the Gothic era saw the heyday of the production of stained glass windows, where colored glass was already used.

Later, window glass began to be produced on an industrial scale, but the technology for its production remained old - “holy”. Window glass was made using this technology almost until the end of the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, glass began to be produced in glass factories. The principle remained the same - glass was melted in furnaces and then blown. But now the “freebie” was blown out by a machine of a larger size. The glass was then “pulled” out of the furnace using rollers. This method was called “vertical hood”. A serious drawback of this technology was the high cost of glass.

Glass production methods

There are many ways to obtain glass:

Blow method(hand and machine blowing). This is the oldest method of producing glass.

Pull method. A wide continuous ribbon of glass is drawn from the molten glass mass. The vertical pull method has been used since 1914. And it is suitable for the production of glass with a thickness of 0.5 mm.

Libby-Owen method(vertical-horizontal). It involves pulling out a glass tape vertically and laying this tape on the horizontal part of the conveyor belt. Suitable for the production of glass up to 30 mm thick.

Method of forming sheet glass on a melt surface ( float method). The glass melt flows from the melting pool into a bath of molten tin. The density of tin is three times greater than the density of glass, so the glass melt floats to the surface of the bath as a flat glass ribbon with a uniform thickness of 1.5 to 12 mm. The important thing is that glass obtained by this method does not require polishing or grinding and has smooth edges. Nowadays, most glass and mirrors are produced using this method.

Pressing method. A measured amount of glass melt is placed in a glass mold and pressed. Used for the manufacture of hollow blocks, glass tiles, glass facing slabs.

Casting and rolling method. The glass melt is poured onto the casting table and rolled out to the required thickness. This method produces thick glass and glass with ornaments. If wire reinforcement is introduced into the melt, curved glass can be obtained.

Foaming method. Crushed aluminum silicate glass is mixed with crushed carbon, placed in molds and heated to 1,000 degrees. C. Carbon oxidizes and forms bubbles in the melt. This makes the glass sound and waterproof.

Imagine coming back from school and there is no glass in the windows of your apartment. There is also no glassware in the house. You want to look at your surprised face in the mirror, but there isn’t one in the apartment either. And you would not have discovered many other useful things if glass had not been invented at one time. In this story I will tell you how the history of glass began.

What about the name of the inventor of glass? But no way. The fact is that it was created by nature itself. A long time ago, many millions of years before the appearance of the first man, glass already existed. And it was formed from first hot and then cooled lava that burst to the surface from volcanoes.

This natural glass is now called obsidian. But they couldn’t glaze, for example, windows, not only because there were no windows then, but also because natural glass is a dirty gray color, through which absolutely nothing can be seen.

So how did usable glass come into being? Maybe people have learned to wash it? Alas, natural glass is dirty not from the outside, but from the inside, so even the most modern detergents will not help here.

There are several legends about how people first made glass close to modern glass. They are all very monotonous and
they say that travelers, not having stones for the hearth, used pieces of natural soda instead. Moreover, this happened in the desert or on the shore of a reservoir, where there was always sand. And so, under the influence of fire, soda and sand melted, forming glass. People believed in these legends for a long time. But quite recently it turned out that all this is not true, because the heat from the fire is not enough for such an rafting.

People began making glass with their own hands more than 5,000 years ago, in Egypt. True, even then it was not transparent, but due to the fact that there were foreign impurities in the sand, it had a green or blue tint. Gradually in the East they learned to get rid of it. Judging by the excavations, the first glass products were beads. A little later they began to cover dishes with glass. And to learn how to make it yourself from glass, it took another 2000 years.

In order to find out the secret of glass production, the government of Venice at the beginning of the 13th century sent special people to the east. The Venetians obtained this secret through bribery and threats.

They set up their own production and were able to make glass even more transparent, having guessed to add a little to its composition lead.

At first, glass was made in the very Venice. Local authorities were very afraid that someone would find out the production secret, so the area where these workshops were located was always cordoned off by soldiers. None of the workers dared to leave the city. For any attempt to do this, not only the glassmaker himself, but also his entire family were sentenced to death.

In the end it was decided to move workshops on the island of Murano. It was more difficult to escape from there, and it was difficult to get there.

In 1271 Venetian grinders learned to make lenses from glass, which at first were not in great demand. But in 1281 guessed to insert them into specially designed frames.

This is how the first glasses appeared. At first they were so expensive that they were an excellent gift even for kings and emperors.

At the end of the 15th century, when in Venice learned to make glassware, Murano products became so popular all over the world that additional ships had to be built to deliver them.

But glass improvements continued later. The time has come, and people came up with the idea of ​​covering it with a special compound - amalgam, and thus mirrors appeared.

In our country glass production began a thousand years ago, in small workshops. And in 1634, the first glass factory was built near Moscow.

According to ancient legend, the discoverers of glass were Phoenician or Greek traders. Having made a stop on an island during one of their many voyages, they lit a fire on the shore. The sand melted from the high heat and turned into a glassy mass.

The invention of glass dates back to very ancient times. Various legends about which people, where and when first made glass are unreliable, so who and when invented glass is unknown.

The appearance of glass is associated with the development of pottery. During firing, a mixture of soda and sand could get onto the clay product, as a result of which a glassy film - glaze - formed on the surface of the product.

In Thebes (Egypt) an image of glassblowers was found, a production reminiscent of our artisanal glass production. Scientists date the inscription on these images to approximately 1600 BC. e. Items found during excavations of ancient Egyptian cities indicate that Egypt was a center of glassmaking, where urns, vases, statues, columns and jugs were made.

The glass that was produced in ancient times was significantly different from modern glass. It was a poorly fused mixture of sand, table salt and lead oxide - frit. Neither the material nor the technique of antiquity made it possible to make large objects from glass.

Glass production in Egypt produced decorative and ornamental materials, so manufacturers sought to produce colored glass rather than transparent glass. Natural soda and local sand containing some calcium carbonate were used as starting materials. Low silica and calcium content, as well as high sodium content, made glass easier to melt because it lowered the melting point, but reduced strength, increased solubility, and reduced the weather resistance of the material.

In glass production, various components were mixed in clay crucibles and heated strongly in a special furnace made of refractory bricks until a homogeneous light mass was obtained. An experienced craftsman determined the readiness of the glass by eye. At the end of the melting process, the glass was poured into molds or cast in small portions. Often the glass mass was allowed to cool in a crucible, which was then broken off. The glass thus obtained was melted down and put into production as needed.

The first glass was used to make beaded jewelry. The beads were made by hand, piece by piece. A thin glass thread was wound around a copper wire, breaking off the thread after each finished bead. Later, to make beads, a glass tube of the required diameter was drawn out and then cut into beads.

Vases were molded on a clay cone, wrapped in cloth and mounted on a copper rod as a handle. To distribute the glass mass more evenly, it was quickly turned several times. For the same purpose, the vase was rolled on a stone slab. After this, the rod and cone were pulled out of the product, allowing it to cool.

The color of the glass depended on the additives introduced. The amethyst color of the glass was given by the addition of manganese compounds. The black color was obtained by adding copper, manganese or a large amount of iron compounds. Much of the blue glass is colored copper, although a sample of blue glass from Tutankhamun's tomb contained cobalt. Green Egyptian glass is colored with copper, yellow glass with lead and antimony. The red glass samples are due to the copper oxide content. Milk glass containing tin and clear glass items were found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

From Egypt and Phenicia, glassmaking moved to other countries, where it reached such a development that crystal glassware even began to replace the goldware that had been used until that time.

A revolution in glass production was achieved by the invention of the glass blowing process. Later, using the blowing method, they learned to make long glass cylinders from finished glass, which were “opened” and straightened, producing flat glass. This method was used to make window glass until the 1900s, and to make glass used for artistic purposes even later.

Ancient glass products were usually painted and were luxury items that were not accessible to everyone; products made of colorless glass were especially highly valued.

In antiquity, glass did not find significant use; even mirrors were then made primarily of metal. But in subsequent eras it was used more and more often. In the Middle Ages, the use of colored glass mosaics to decorate windows in churches became widespread.

The late Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era were marked by the widespread use of glassblowing. Glassmaking had a great development in Venice. Being the strongest maritime power in the Mediterranean, Venice conducted extensive trade with the countries of the East and West. A prominent item in this trade was glass, which was distinguished by its extraordinary variety and great artistic value. The Venetians invented mosaic glass and mirrors. Receiving great benefits from trade, Venice took every possible care to develop its glass industry. The export of glass raw materials was prohibited, and agreements were concluded with other countries to purchase broken glass from them.

Glassmakers were provided with numerous benefits. At the same time, the Venetians jealously guarded the secrets of glass production; disclosure of professional secrets was punishable by death.

Let us dwell on the main types of glass produced by Venetian glassblowers who organized production on the island of Murano near Venice.

Colored glass. Oxides of non-ferrous metals were used for its manufacture. Iron oxide colors the glass mass green, copper oxide gives a green or red tone, cobalt produces blue glass, an admixture of gold produces ruby ​​glass, etc. The first vessels made of colored glass appeared in the second half of the 15th century. And almost all of them were painted with enamel paints. Favorite color in the 16th century. was blue - azurro. Violet glass – pavonazzo – also enjoyed great success.

The enamelled and gilded glass from Murano is of the greatest interest. The beginning of glass painting with enamel is associated with the name of the famous master and outstanding chemist Angelo Beroviero. Initially, vessels made of colored transparent glass were painted with enamel; later they began to cover milky glass with painting. Venetian vessels of the early period are distinguished by their unusually rich painting: triumphal processions, wedding processions, scenes of mythological content, and erotic subjects were depicted. Glass was often decorated with gold scale-like patterns and relief dots made of multi-colored enamel.

Transparent colorless glass was invented in the second half of the 15th century. This is the famous Venetian crystallo. The name emphasizes the colorlessness and transparency of the glass in comparison with previously produced glass of a greenish tint or colored glass.

Filigree glass. This is colorless transparent glass, decorated with glass threads introduced into the mass. These threads, usually spirally twisted, represent an infinite variety of plexuses. Most often, threads are white (milky) in color. Judging by the surviving samples, the time of the invention of filigree glass coincides with the establishment of Renaissance forms in Venetian glassmaking.

A unique type of filigree technique is mesh glass. It is made from two layers of clear glass with a filigree pattern, superimposed on each other in the opposite direction. A pattern is formed in the form of a grid, and, as a rule, an air drop is placed in each cell.

Milk glass is an opaque white glass with a milky tint ( latticinio or lattimo). It is obtained by adding tin oxide to the glass mass. The vessels of the 16th century, made of colored milk glass and painted with enamel paints and gold, were, apparently, the first attempts in Europe to imitate porcelain. Today, this fake porcelain is extremely rare and extremely valuable.

Agate glass is the name given to glass consisting of differently arranged and differently colored layers that make up patterns similar to agate. Agate glass comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. As is known, in mineralogy, agate forms one group with chalcedony and jasper. Therefore, in old Italian treatises one can also find the names of jasper and chalcedony glass.

Aventurine glass is a special type of glass invented by Murano craftsmen at the beginning of the 17th century. On the polished surface there are countless shiny dots that produce a special lighting effect. These flickering dots on yellowish-brown glass are obtained by adding copper to the glass mass, which crystallizes when the glass cools. The invention of aventurine glass is attributed to the Miotti dynasty, which for many years kept the secret of its production.

Mosaic glass. The way this glass is made is remarkable. Multi-colored glass threads are taken and soldered into a narrow cylindrical rod, the cross section of which has the shape of an asterisk, rosette, or some symmetrical figure. This glass rod is then cut into many discs, which are inserted into the glass mass. Products made from mosaic glass are a motley field woven from stars, rosettes, etc.

Some Murano pieces are decorated with a pattern called craquelage. The pattern was obtained like this: a blown object, inside of which a high temperature was maintained, was lowered into cold water. As a result, the outer layer of glass becomes covered with countless cracks, which, however, do not penetrate into the thickness of the glass. Cracks remain on the surface of the glass, decorating it with a unique pattern.

The process of making vases using the pulegoso technique is based on the effect of air bubbles forming inside the glass, which are formed when hot glass is immersed in water and immediately returned to the furnace to give density to the substance. The vases are blown and processed by hand.

Engraved glass was already known at the beginning of the 16th century. At first, the Venetians engraved glass with diamonds mechanically. Later, a chemical engraving method was invented.

Beads. Bead production was a well-known and perhaps the most profitable branch of the Venetian glass industry. The beads were known as conterie. In a broad sense, the term conterie refers not only to beads, but also beads, glass buttons, artificial pearls, fake rhinestones and other small glass objects. The name itself is explained by the fact that this piece of goods is very easy and convenient to count (contare - in Italian - to count).

The first scientific work on glassmaking is considered to be the book of the monk Antonio Neri, published in 1612 in Florence, in which instructions were given on the use of oxides of lead, boron and arsenic to brighten glass, and the compositions of colored glasses were given. In the second half of the 17th century. German alchemist Kunkel published his essay “The Experimental Art of Glassmaking”. He also found a way to obtain a golden ruby.

In 1615, coal began to be used in England to heat glass melting furnaces. This increased the temperature in the oven.

At the beginning of the 17th century. In France, a method was proposed for casting mirror glass on copper plates with subsequent rolling. Around the same time, a method of etching glass with a mixture of fluorspar and sulfuric acid was discovered, and the production of window and optical glass was mastered.

In Rus', glass was found in the form of beads back in the 13th century, but there were no factories at that time. The first Russian plant was built only in 1634 by the Swede Elisha Koeta. The plant produced tableware and apothecary ware; the first craftsmen there were Germans, who had a great influence on the development of the Russian glass industry.

In 1668, construction began on a state-owned plant in the village of Izmailovo near Moscow, which was partially working for export. Thus, dishes of the “Izmailovo craft” were exported to Persia - up to 2000 jugs, decanters and flycatchers annually.

The construction of glass factories progressed much faster in the 18th century. Peter I did especially a lot in this regard, who patronized the development of glass making, abolished duties on glass products, ordered German masters, and sent Russians to study abroad. Upon returning from a trip abroad, he built a state-owned factory near Moscow, on Vorobyovy Gory, which was supposed to be made into an exemplary glass factory and at the same time a school for training glassmakers.

In 1720, the Decree “On the establishment of mirror factories in Kyiv” was issued. During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna (1741–1761), there were already six glass factories near Moscow.

In 1752, “permission was given to Professor M.V. Lomonosov to start a factory for finishing multi-colored glass, beads, bugles and other haberdashery items with a privilege for 30 years.” Among the products produced at the plant was glass for mosaic work (“musiya”), from which M. V. Lomonosov created a number of paintings, including the famous “Battle of Poltava”. After Lomonosov's death, the plant passed to his widow and closed in 1798.

In 1760, the Moscow merchant Maltsov received permission to set up a glass factory for the production of crystal and glassware, as well as mirror, carriage and window glass. This plant became the founder of the later known Maltsov plants.

Until the middle of the 19th century. glass was boiled in crucibles. In the 30s of the XIX century. The first bath furnaces for industrial glass production appeared in Russia.

In 1856, Friedrich Siemens invented the regenerative glass furnace. In it, exhaust gases are heated by preheating chambers lined with refractory materials. As soon as these chambers are sufficiently hot, they are supplied with flammable gases and the air necessary for their combustion. The gases generated during combustion evenly mix the molten glass, otherwise mixing a thousand tons of viscous melt would be far from easy. The temperature in the regenerative furnace reaches 1600 °C. Later the same principle was applied to steel melting.

A modern glass melting furnace is a continuous furnace. On one side, initial substances are fed into it, which, thanks to a slight tilt of the hearth, move, gradually turning into molten glass, to the opposite side (the distance between the walls of the furnace is about 50 m). There, a precisely measured portion of the finished glass is fed onto cooled rollers. A glass ribbon several meters wide stretches the entire length of the hundred-meter cooling section. At the end of this section, machines cut it into sheets of the desired format and size for mirrors or window glass.

The next significant stage in the development of sheet glass production was the method of machine glass drawing, which was developed by Emile Fourcauld in 1902. With this method, glass is drawn out of the glass furnace through rolling rollers in the form of a continuous strip and enters a cooling shaft, in the upper part of which it is cut into individual sheets. The machine method of glass production was further improved in the first half of the 20th century. Among the most modern methods, the so-called Libbey-Owens method and the Pittsburgh method should be highlighted.

The most recent stage in glass production was the float method, patented in 1959, developed by the English inventor Pilkington. In this process, which can be equated to discovery, the glass comes from the melting furnace in a horizontal plane in the form of a flat ribbon through a bath of molten tin for further cooling and annealing. The huge advantage of the float method, compared to all previous methods, is, among other things, higher productivity, stable thickness and defect-free glass, as well as surface quality.

Among solid substances of inorganic origin (stone, metal), glass occupies a special place. Certain properties of glass make it similar to liquid. There are no crystals to be found in it. There is no sharp transition in it at any particular temperature from the liquid to the solid state (or vice versa). Molten glass (glass mass) remains solid over a wide temperature range. If we take the viscosity of water as 1, then the viscosity of molten glass at 1400 °C is 13,500. If glass is cooled to 1000 °C, it becomes viscous and 2 million times more viscous than water. (For example, a loaded glass tube or sheet sag over time.) At even lower temperatures, the glass turns into a liquid with an infinitely high viscosity.

The main component of glass is silicon dioxide SiO 2, or silica. In its purest form, it is represented in nature by white quartz sand. Silicon dioxide crystallizes relatively gradually during the transition from the melt to the solid state. Melted quartz can be cooled below its solidification temperature without it becoming solid. There are other liquids and solutions that can also be supercooled. But only quartz can be overcooled so much that it loses its ability to form crystals. The silicon dioxide then remains “crystal-free”, that is, “liquid-like”.

It would be too expensive to process pure quartz, primarily due to its relatively high melting point. Therefore, technical glasses contain only 50 to 80% silicon dioxide. To lower the melting point, additives of sodium oxide, alumina and lime are introduced into the composition of such glasses. Certain properties are achieved by adding some other chemicals.

The famous lead glass, which is carefully polished to make bowls or vases, owes its brilliance to the presence of about 18% lead in it.

Mirror glass contains mainly cheap components that reduce the melting point. In large baths (as glassmakers call them), holding more than 1000 tons of glass, fusible substances are first melted. Melted soda and other chemicals dissolve quartz (like water dissolves table salt). This simple method can transform silicon dioxide into a liquid state already at a temperature of about 1000 °C (although in its pure form it begins to melt at much higher temperatures). Much to the chagrin of glassmakers, gases are released from the glass melt. At 1000 °C the melt is still too viscous for gas bubbles to escape freely. To degas it should be brought to a temperature of 1400–1600 °C.

The discovery of the special nature of glass came only in the 20th century, when scientists around the world began to conduct large-scale studies of the atomic and molecular structure of various substances using X-rays.

Nowadays a large number of types of glass are produced. According to their intended purpose, they are divided into: building glass (window glass, patterned glass, glass blocks), container glass, technical glass (quartz, lighting, fiberglass), grade glass, etc.

Glass products can luminesce under the influence of various types of radiation, transmit or absorb ultraviolet radiation.

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