All About Glass
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This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Librarian at our Rakow Research Library.
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Colored glass, often deep blue glass colored with cobalt oxide. Smalts are finely ground to use as colorants for glass and enamel.
A type of decoration that consists of trails applied in sinuous patterns. It was made by the Romans between the second and fourth centuries A.D.
A small bottle (in China) or box (in Europe) for powdered tobacco, or snuff. The habit of inhaling snuff, which spread to Europe from the Americas in the 17th century, was introduced to China in the 18th century.
A small bottle (in China) or box (in Europe) for powdered tobacco, or snuff. The habit of inhaling snuff, which spread to Europe from the Americas in the 17th century, was introduced to China in the 18th century.
Sodium carbonate. Soda (or alternatively potash) is commonly used as the alkali ingredient of glass. It serves as a flux to reduce the fusion point of the silica when the batch is melted.
Historically, the most common form of glass. It contains three major compounds in varying proportions, but usually silica (about 60-75 percent), soda (12-18 percent), and lime (5-12 percent). Soda-lime glasses are relatively light, and upon heating, they remain plastic and workable over a wide
(Italian) A tool used as a puffer to further inflate a vessel after it has been removed from the blowpipe and is attached to the pontil. It consists of a curved metal tube attached to a conical nozzle. The glassblower reheats the vessel, inserts the nozzle into its mouth so that the aperture is
A generic name for glass (e.g., soda-lime glass) with a relatively high coefficient of expansion. The term hard glass (e.g., borosilicate glass) refers to glass with a relatively low coefficient of expansion.
(German) A drinking glass made in the Spessart region of Germany in the 16th century. Although the term is frequently applied to a tall glass resembling a Stangenglas, there is no proof that the usage is correct.
A tall, narrow vessel for spills. Spills are thin strips of wood, or folded or twisted pieces of paper, used for lighting candles, pipes, etc. Taperstick