Learning Interesting Facts About Glass

Glass is a beautiful form of art. It is also an important meant of protection.

It is an extremely fragile substance, but also a surprisingly strong one. It provides the means to see and the means to create energy.

It amazing that one substance can perform all of these tasks and many, many others. Glass is also the material that is used windows, bottles, and drinking glasses.

It is found in every element of our everyday life. This material would definitely be missed if it suddenly disappeared out of the world.

The oldest known form of glass was found in Egypt in the form of beads. These beads dated back to 12,000 BC.

The beads were generally very precious and only something that was worn by royalty. They are most often discovered in ancient graves.

The graves of ancient Egypt have given archeologists the most clues to the past in that area. The Egyptian put a tremendous emphasis on the afterlife and preparing for it.

As a result, the ancient pharaohs prepared themselves by burying or taking much gold, many servants, food, and many other things that they thought would be needed. The art and objects found in these graves tell much of the history of the area.

Glass very rarely occurs in nature on its own. When it does, it is usually in a very dark form.

As a result, when glass is discovered, archeologists generally become excited because it usually means that some form of humanity lived in the area. Despite its rare occurrence in nature, glass is one of the few substances that is actually 100 percent recyclable.

Not only is it 100 percent recyclable, but none of it is lost when it is recycled. In addition, there is absolutely not loss in quality.

This is a very rare characteristic among precious items. As a result, glass did not lose its value in the past even though various types definitely were more valuable than others.

Another interesting fact about glass is that the United Kingdom has more than 50,000 bottle tanks. One of these bottle tanks can hold up to 3000 bottles.

This means that the United Kingdom can recycle up to 150,000,000 glass bottles at one time. This makes glass an ideal substance for providing drinks in to the public.

It is also good to note that Americans recycle 13 million glass bottles a year. This is a significant improvement because fewer plastic bottles will be used and thrown away as glass bottles are used more frequently.

Glass is not a burden on the environment like plastic is. One of the rare natural occurrences of glass in nature occurs when lightning strikes sand.

The lightening that strikes the sand provides enough extreme heat to melt the sand into a long, thin type of glass called fulgurites. Of course, this is very rare.

Another interesting fact is that the first glass vessels to be created were made in Egypt and Mesopotamia. These vessels were created around 1500 BC.

This is expected as the first form of this substance was found in Egypt. The trade of the beads would have spread the technique of the creation of glass to the surrounding area.

As this substance was also very precious and the creation of it would have been developed further. This technique quickly developed into the creation of vessels.

As time passed, the blowpipe was created. The blowpipe is used to blow air into glass to form and shape it.

Today the blowpipe is used to create beautiful works of art. It can be used to create almost any shape with swirling colors and patterns.

Marbles are one of the most popular forms of glass work. The blowpipe was originally invented around 30 BC.

An actual glass factory was not built until 1608. This factory was built in Jamestown, Virginia. However, this first attempt at mass producing glass failed.

By this time, glass was a luxury item that the poor could not afford. Unfortunately around the time that the factory was built, a famine struck.

As a result, the surrounding people could not afford the luxurious glass. Instead they spent their money on what little food there was.

Many people died as a result of the famine. However, another factory was built in 1739 in New Jersey.

This attempt was much more successful and it existed until 1780. Since that time glass has become increasingly more popular.

Another interesting fact about glass is that it is an amorphous material. This means that extremely hot glass can be cooled very quickly and will not be solidified.