All About Glass

All About Glass

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 Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.

Ancient Egyptian Furnace- Family
Video

This is a full-scale model of half an Egyptian glass furnace. The original is more than 3,500 years old.

Ancient Egyptian Furnace
Video

Listen as curator David Whitehouse describes an ancient Egyptian furnace. This is a full-scale model of a furnace that was used for making glass at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, nearly 3,500 years ago. The model shows half of the furnace. The lower part was constructed in a pit, with only the dome above

The Cadmiologia of Johann Gottlob Lehmann: A Sourcebook for the History of Preindustrial Glass Furnaces in Central Europe
Article

Glass furnaces are built to last. Self-destruction, however, seems to be one of their regrettable characteristics. The structure is consumed by high temperatures that no material can withstand indefinitely. Although the life spans of furnaces may have varied considerably, a report of 1649 suggests