The earliest glass maker in the world was the ancient Egyptians. The emergence and use of glass has a history of more than 4000 years in human life. Small glass beads have been unearthed from the ruins of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt 4000 years ago.
In the 12th century, commercial glass appeared and began to become industrial materials. In the 18th century, optical glass was made to meet the needs of telescopes. In 1874, Belgium first made flat glass. In 1906, the United States produced a flat glass lead-in machine. Since then, with the industrialization and large-scale production of glass, glass with various uses and properties came out one after another. In modern times, glass has become an important material in the fields of daily life, production and science and technology.
More than 3000 years ago, a European Phoenician merchant ship, loaded with crystal mineral "natural soda", sailed on the berus River along the Mediterranean coast. As the sea ebbed, the merchant ship ran aground, so the crew boarded the beach one after another. Some crew members also brought large pots and firewood, and used several pieces of "natural soda" as the support of the large pot to cook rice on the beach.
When the crew had finished their meal, the tide began to rise. When they were about to pack up and board the ship to continue sailing, someone suddenly shouted, "come and see, there are some glittering and bright things on the sand under the pot!"
The crew took these glittering things to the ship and studied them carefully. They found some quartz sand and melted natural soda on these shiny things. It turned out that these flashing things were the natural soda they used to make the support of the pot when cooking. Under the action of fire, they reacted with the quartz sand on the beach. This is the earliest glass. Later, the Phoenicians mixed quartz sand with natural soda, and then melted it in a special furnace to make glass balls, which made the Phoenicians a great fortune.
About the 4th century, the ancient Romans began to apply glass to doors and windows. By 1291, the glass manufacturing technology in Italy had been very developed.
In this way, Italian glass craftsmen were sent to an isolated island to produce glass. They were not allowed to leave the island for a lifetime.
In 1688, a man named naff invented the process of making large pieces of glass. Since then, glass has become an ordinary object.
