Most glass is made of silica sand (silica, or silicon dioxide), with a little soda ash (sodium carbonate) and limestone (calcium carbonate) added to lower the sand’s melting temperature.
Early humans got the idea for making glass after finding chunks formed by lightning strikes on the beach. These early humans originally cast it like metal and then ground and polished it, which was a laborious process.
At about 50 B.C., Romans figured out how to blow glass using hollow metal tubes, which suddenly made glass inexpensive and practical for a variety of cups, bottles, and other vessels.
Related Posts
-
Where Did the Sand In White Sands, New Mexico Come From and Why Is the Sand So White?
The 275 square mile (715 sq km) White Sands National Monument, in the northern part of New Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert, is covered with sand made of gypsum crystals, which are usually white. Sand…
-
How Were the Sand Hills In Carolina and Georgia Formed and Where Did the Sand Come From?
A series of ancient beaches and sand dunes called sand hills, some of them 30 miles (48 km) wide, runs from southwestern Georgia across central South Carolina and into south-central North Carolina. The…
-
Why Does a Beer or a Coke Poured Into a Dry Glass Froth Up Faster Than When Poured Into a Wet Glass?
Beer, sparkling wine, a Coke, and other fizzy drinks are liquids which are supersaturated with gas. Although thermodynamics favours the gas bubbling out of the dissolved state, bubble formation is unlikely since bubbles…
-
Why does a Glass of Champagne have Smaller and Fewer Bubbles Than a Glass of Beer?
There are several reasons why a glass of champagne has less bubbles than a glass of beer, none of them sociological. • The champagne is likely to have been poured into a flute,…
-
What Would Happen To Sea Levels On Earth If the Polar Ice Caps Melted Completely?
Scientists have estimated how much the sea level would rise, but the exact amount of land lost would require a very complicated worldwide coastal survey. Perhaps only the military knows. Melting the East…
-
What Would Happen If the Antarctic Ice Sheet Melted and How High Would the Sea Level Rise?
If the Antarctic ice sheet melted, the sea level around the world would rise about 220 feet (67 meters), the height of a 20-story building. About 90 percent of the world's ice is…
