History of glass making

The first glass we know of was made in Mesopotamia, Syria and Eqypt. And that it was produced at least 3600 years BC. As Mesepotamia within the Tigris-Euphrates river system anyways is seemingly one of the earliest places of the Neolithic Revolution. And we believe the wheel was invented there. As well as the first planting of crops and agriculture in general. As well as mathematics and astronomy. And so it is not strange that the earliest glass products where found in this area. While these first glass products where beads. And they might have just been accidental by-products of metalworking so called slags. Or the beads could also have occured during the production of faience which is a vitreous material. So it is made of powdered glass. While the term already derives from the latin word “vitreum” which means “glass”. But even before humanity was able to produce glass the material was already in use. Because in nature already silica is melted to glass by vulcanic heat. And this type of glass is called obsidian. And it was useful for Stone Age weapons and tools as it was very sharp. And then glassmaking was invented. Which predates the smelting of iron by far. But since this first glass was not very transparent it was not glass as we know it today. While glass in a more modern form appeared 1500 in Egypt and already 1600 BC in Mesopotamia. And early glassworking relied on carving and grinding the glass instead of forming it when it was hot. And therefor it reminded more of stoneworking. And later then there where techniques like winding a heated glass bar around a core to get a vessel. And then reheating the vessel for having the glass melt to one unit. And for this progress oxides where added to give the single glass bars different colors. And also in the fore there could be engravings which would then later be on the glass. While later roman glassworking became famous. So the word “glass” is actually derived from the word “glesum” which probably was formed from a Germanic word for “transparent material”. But at the time when the word was formed the part of nowadays Germany was conquered by the romans. So roman glassmaking coined the term glass in what is today Germany. And more precisely in Trier. Which is a city at the Moselle in Rhineland-Palatinate. And the famous Roman glass was found up to China and India. So it was transported to South Asia and East Asia. And not only used in the Roman Empire. Which makes Roman glass a product of world renown. While maybe glass had been made in India even hundred years before the earliest real glass was made in Mespotamia. In the fifteenth century before Christ glass making was common. Yet glass remained a luxury material. And then with the disasters of the Late Bronze Age glass making seemingly stopped. Until in the 9th century BC it was picked up again. And then 800 years later in the first century BC glass blowing was discovered. And this made glass vessels inexpensive compared to pottery vessels. And with the invention of clear glass through the use of manganese dioxide glass became used as a building material for architecture. Even though it was not very transparent. But from there glass making spread through all of europe and beyond.

So here are some images of different photographers. And the are all under the creative commons 4 license.