Who invented glass and where did it happen? The history of the invention of glass What an original way of using glass came up with Aristotle.

Today, not a single scientist can answer with exact dates the questions of when and how glass was invented. Too much time has passed since then. There is no unity among historians about the place of its invention.

Most likely the birthplace of glass was Mesopotamia or Egypt. Here, archaeologists find glass vessels, whose age is approximately three and a half thousand years. It was then that glass products began to be widely used among wealthy citizens. But it did not look like modern samples - one of the main qualities of today's glass was missing - transparency.

It is believed that man-made glass may have been discovered as a by-product of other crafts. Potters fired their products in ordinary pits, often dug in the sand, and used straw or reeds to keep the fire going. The ash resulting from combustion - that is, alkali - upon contact with sand and high temperature turned into glass glaze. And an attentive master potter could notice this and begin to make glass on purpose.

The Phoenicians were excellent sailors. They could see the glass making process during their visits to other countries. But even if they were not the first in his invention, they were undoubtedly the best in production. Their products are incredibly appreciated, despite the high price. It is no coincidence that even ancient authors attributed the invention of glass to the Phoenicians. The ancient Roman historian Pliny, who lived in the first century BC, described how glass was invented: returning from a sea voyage to Africa, Phoenician merchants landed on the shore. They built a fire on a sandy beach, and used their cargo - soda - as a hearth. And then they found pieces of glass at the site of the fire.

It is believed that the Phoenicians were the first to learn how to make transparent glass. However, they could paint it in any color. In Tire and Sidon - the largest cities of Phenicia - glass factories appeared. Gradually, glass products turned from luxury into objects for wide use. This craft reached its peak in the Roman era, when the craftsmen of Sidon invented the glass blowing pipe.

The Roman Empire lured glassblowers to itself. Alexandria has established itself as a center of glass production. Some historians even speak of the first receipt clear glass in this city, dating this event to about the hundredth year BC. Local craftsmen have achieved transparency by adding manganese oxide to the glass mass. And the fact is undeniable that it was in the Roman Empire that windows were first glazed. The technology for manufacturing flat glasses for these purposes is a secret to this day. It is assumed that flat molds were used to cast them.

And although there is no specifics about where and how glass was invented, alas, this event ranks fourth among the most important inventions mankind, skipping forward only the periodic table of Mendeleev, the technology of iron smelting and the creation of the first transistor.

Target:

• introduce students to the history of Phenicia;
• its geographical location, occupations of the population, the contribution of the Phoenicians to the development of navigation and writing;
• continue the formation of skills to correctly show historical objects on the map, read simple maps, formulate simple conclusions, work with the text of the textbook, highlight the main thing, cultivate interest in history.

Lesson equipment:

1. Map "Egypt and Western Asia in antiquity".
2. Cards with concepts for the reference abstract.
3. Cards for fixing.

During the classes

I. Organization of the class.

II. Target.

(knock on the door, the messenger passes the scroll).

- Young sons and daughters of nobles, scribes and artisans! May your fields give abundant harvests! Let your heads be filled with knowledge. May your king live forever and ever and rightly rule the country!
I, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, have heard that there is such a state - Phoenicia. Many differences and curiosities there are made by her craftsmen, that their ships are the best throughout the great water, and their clothes are bright, like a sunset, what they came up with, how to write down what is stored in the vaults of their nobles. Help me find out where this country is located. What are her free people? Is it true that they are the best sailors? Where and why do they swim, do they trade and what? Do they have a written language? I have conceived a great undertaking and need good ships and efficient men. Find out everything you can and let me know.
King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Pharaoh Psametikh 2.

– What questions did Pharaoh put before us?

- What else did you notice in class?

- Yes, the topic of the lesson is written in a strange way. This is another one of the riddles, the answer to which we will find in the lesson.

III. New topic.

– Phenicia is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Are major rivers such as the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates marked on the map in Phoenicia?

– No, there were no such large rivers in Phoenicia. And what major cities existed in Ancient Phoenicia? (Byblos, Sidon, Tyre)

The Phoenician cities were independent states. The cities were protected by high stone walls and towers. Two-story houses with balconies were built there, magnificent temples and palaces were erected in the cities.

- What do you think, what was the relief on the territory of Phoenicia, if "Byblos" in Phoenician means "mountain", and "Tyr" means "rock"? (mountains and hills)

- The Phoenicians were experienced sailors, prove this idea.

Group work:

1st group - textbook by V.I. Prickly p. 74,
2nd group - map,
3rd group - textbook F.A. Mikhailovsky pp. 90-91

So what evidence did you find?

1st group

• They built strong ships that were not afraid of storms and storms. (Phoenicia was famous for its groves of the famous Lebanese cedar. The durable resinous wood of the cedar was an excellent material for building strong sea ​​vessels. And at the very water on the nose, they strengthened a pointed log bound in bronze - a ram. In battle, they pierced the side of an enemy ship, and it sank).
• Sailed all over the Mediterranean

2nd group

– Where did the Phoenicians go? (Cyprus, Crete, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, North Africa).

3rd group

In 600 BC The Phoenicians were the first in the world to circumnavigate Africa.

– Listen historical source, and determine what image of the Phoenician developed among the ancient peoples?

Then a Phoenician arrived in Egypt, a treacherous deceiver,
An evil thief, from whom many people suffered;
He, having seduced me with a fascinating speech, Phoenicia,
Where both the manor and the house he had, persuaded to visit with him.
In Libya with him in a ship, flying around the seas,
He invited me to swim, saying:
We sell our goods there profitably,
He himself, on the contrary, did not plan to sell me a product there.

– Yes, the Phoenicians were notorious for being greedy and cunning slave traders. Very often, landing on the shore for trade, they unexpectedly attacked the local population and by force took people to their ships or lured people to their ships by deception. The Phoenicians used slaves as rowers, laborers, loaders, and sold these goods to other countries.

- So, what occupation of the Phoenicians did we learn about? (Slave trade, trade).

– Natural conditions favored the cultivation of olive trees and grapes, from which wine and oil were made. Wine, olives, handicrafts, building timber were exchanged by the Phoenicians for wheat. in Phoenicia there was little room for farmers. There was not enough of their own bread, it had to be imported from neighboring countries. Based on what has been said, summarize what the Phoenicians bought and traded?

brought to Phoenicia- grain, cattle, canvas for sails, dressed leather, papyrus, slaves.

sold- wood, wine, olive oil, fabrics, amber, tin, slaves, handicrafts.

– Look at these items (display of jewelry, vases, vessels, fabrics). How can one say in one word what else the Phoenicians were doing? (by craft).

- Jewelers made elegant jewelry from gold, silver, precious stones, which were willingly bought by the local rich and strangers. The carvers created expressive figurines and ivory items (illustration).

- Listen to the ancient legend and determine what invention was made by the Phoenicians?

“One day a Phoenician merchant ship carrying a cargo of soda landed on a sandy shore. The merchants decided to have lunch, lit a fire, took out pots, but did not find stones on which to put them. Then, instead of stones, they used pieces of rock soda taken from the ship. The fire was strong, the soda melted and mixed with sand: jets of a transparent liquid flowed from the fire. This liquid was ... (glass)."

– So, the Phoenician craftsmen invented transparent glass. It was smelted in special furnaces from a mixture of white sand and soda. Incense vessels and vases were blown out of glass.

What else did Phoenicia give to the world?

Individual message.

“The dyeing business also developed unusually in Phoenicia, especially the dyeing of fabrics in purple. How was purple dye obtained? Experienced divers dived to the bottom of the sea and, risking their lives, mined small shells with snails. A drop of precious liquid was squeezed out of each mollusk, which made it possible to dye clothes in various shades of purple: pink, scarlet, lilac-red. Fabrics dyed with purple dye sparkled in the sun, they did not fade or fade when washed. The price of purple fabrics was huge, so only very rich people bought them: kings, priests, military leaders. In ancient times, purple was considered the color of royalty.

– So what did Phoenicia give to the world? (Purple paint).

- In places convenient for life, where the ships of the Phoenicians reached, they founded colonies. What is a colony?

The colony - settlement based on foreign territory.

The settlement grew and turned into a city. The most famous Phoenician colony was Carthage, founded in northern Africa in the 9th century BC.

- What was the reason that the Phoenicians left their country and founded colonies, find the answer in the textbook on pages 89-90?

1. Trade.
2. Overpopulation.
3. Internal strife.

“Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Phoenicians is the invention of the alphabet.

Alphabet - a way of writing in which each letter corresponds to only one sound.

What prompted the Phoenicians to make this invention? Phoenician merchants needed to keep records in order to trade successfully. They got acquainted with the Egyptian letter and clutched their heads: no, such a letter does not suit us. Why? What are the difficulties of Egyptian writing?

The Phoenicians got acquainted with cuneiform writing, it also seemed difficult to them. How?

- Then the Phoenicians created their own letter - the oldest alphabet in the world. How did the Phoenician alphabet differ from Egyptian writing and cuneiform? Why was it so much easier to master it? What is special about Phoenician writing? Find answers to all these questions on pages 91-92.

1. Each sound was a letter and conveyed one sound.
2. There were 22 such letters. Everyone could remember them. It's easy to write them. The letters were arranged in a certain order. Got an alphabet. The first letter of the alphabet was the letter "aleph", or "a", the second - "bet", or "b".
3. There were 22 letters and they did not come up with all consonants, vowels.
4. The Phoenicians wrote from right to left, not from left to right, as we do.

– So why is the topic of our lesson written from right to left?

- So the Phoenicians wrote, now it will not be forgotten.

- What was the worldwide significance of the invention of the alphabet by the Phoenicians?

The Phoenician alphabet was borrowed by the ancient Greeks. They introduced letters representing vowel sounds. The Romans adopted the alphabet from the Greeks. The Slavic and then the Russian alphabet was built on the basis of the Greek alphabet. Thus, having learned to write, we find ourselves in direct connection with the ancient Phoenicians, who created the first alphabet.

IV. Consolidation of the studied material.

a) Fill in the blanks.

On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea was ... (Phoenicia). The Phoenicians planted ... (grapes) and ... (olive trees). The largest cities of the Phoenicians were ..., ... and ... (Byblos, Sidon and Tire). In Phoenicia, transparent ... (glass), ... (alphabet) and purple ... (paint) were invented. The Phoenicians founded ... (colonies). In North Africa, the Phoenicians founded the city ... (Carthage).

B) Collective express response to the pharaoh

– Starting with the words "I would write to the pharaoh that ...".

V. D / z p.15, answer questions

Literature.

1. Araslanova O.V. Lesson developments in history ancient world to the textbooks of A.A. Vigasina, G.I. Godera, I.S. Sventsitskaya and F.A. Mikhailovsky. - M., 2002.
2. Ancient world history. Additional materials for lessons. - Bryansk "Kursiv"., 2003.
3. Severina O.A. History of the ancient world 5th grade part 1. - Volgograd., 2003.

"Glass Structures" - Direct Heat Transfer (DET). Outer side. Possibilities of using STOPSOL glass. Types of solar control glazing. Noise damping could be better. Laminated glass. Double-glazed window 4-12-4-12-4 mm Noise absorption 28 dB. Strained glass. Planibel TOP N 1.1 4-16-4 mm (argon) U = 1.1 r0=0.65.

"Glass production" - In the 15-16 centuries. Venetian glass acquired leading importance in the decorative and applied arts of Europe. D. I. Mendeleev’s idea of ​​the polymeric structure of “silica glass” turned out to be the most valuable. Modern glass is produced on the basis of multicomponent systems. METAL GLASS. Simultaneously with clarification, homogenization takes place - averaging of the glass mass in composition.

"Glass" - Ordinary window glass has 0.97 W / (m. Chemical laboratory glass - glass with high chemical and thermal resistance. Quartz glasses have the highest thermal conductivity. Fragility. Optical glass. Glasses consisting of atoms of one element are called elementary. The most important in practice belongs to the class of silicate glasses.

“Painting on glass” - 3. The outline of the drawing is applied with paint-outliner. Children's "stained glass paints". Glass painting process. Acrylic paints. Sometimes the drying time may be longer. 4. Then a painting is applied with a synthetic brush or a natural hair brush. Stained glass paints. Paints can be matte or transparent.

"Green Chemistry" - Catalytic processes. Section of chemistry. Humanity. The use of excipients. Selectivity. Auxiliary stages. Reducing the number of stages. Catalytic systems and processes. Energy costs. Analytical methods. Search for new sources of energy. Raw material for the product. State of aggregation.

"The subject of study of chemistry" - What has changed. Burning fire. Clothing. We live in the environment chemical substances. One substance - many bodies. General conclusions. The word "chemistry". chemical reactions. The transformation of substances. Each body is made entirely of plastic or partially. We argue. How interesting. Ecological general education. Conclusions. The subject of chemistry.

Lesson: Phoenician sailors

Pedagogical goals: To help familiarize students with the way of life and cultural achievements of the Phoenicians; create conditions for the development of skills to characterize the concept of "colony" in the history of the Ancient World, to define the Phoenician alphabet as a special writing system; to promote the development of the ability to work with the map.

The main content of the topic, concepts and terms : Location and natural conditions of Phoenicia. Formation of city-states in Phoenicia. Cities: Tire, Byblos, Sidon. The Phoenicians are the best sailors of the ancient world. international trade Phoenicians, the formation of colonies. Inventions and discoveries of Phoenician artisans: making purple dye, making glass. The invention of the alphabet. Incense, purple paint, colony, alphabet.

During the classes.

1. Organizational moment. Greeting students. Check readiness for the lesson.

2. Knowledge control.

Checking knowledge of chronology: (chronological dictation)

1. Formation of a single state in Egypt (3000 BC)

2. The reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC)

3. Conquest campaigns of Thutmose (1500 BC)

4. The appearance of the first people on Earth (2 million years ago)

5. Appearance of Homo sapiens (40 thousand years ago)

6. The emergence of crafts (10 thousand years ago)

7. Appearance of writing (5 thousand years ago)

8. Beginning of metal processing (9 thousand years ago)

3. Statement of the learning task. The teacher offers to look at the map and find cities on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea: Tire, Byblos, Sidon; read the name of the country to be met in this lesson.

4. Assimilation of new knowledge and methods of action. Location and natural conditions of Phoenicia. Formation of city-states ( teacher's story using the map).

Problem question:

Using a map and a story, determine how the geographical conditions of the country influenced the activities of people? Compare the occupations of the Phoenicians with the occupations of the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, indicate the similarities and differences - on the board

Phoenicia is fenced off from Western Asia by a mountain range. The coast here is rocky, and the strip of fertile land is quite narrow, almost unsuitable for agriculture. The country is so small that the inscription on the map Phoenicia did not fit on land and, as it were, floats in sea water.

The main wealth of the country was given by the sea.

Sailing on a ship along the coast, we would see beautiful cities located almost on the coast: Byblos, Sidon and Tire. By narrow roads, laid along the coast, trade caravans moved from north to south and back.

In general, the climate was favorable. Summer lasted from late April to late October, while winter was short - only three months. During this time, cold rains now and then fell upon the inhabitants. The air temperature in summer reached 27-31 degrees Celsius; in winter, colds set in, which sometimes reached 7 frosts, but more often the air was moderately cool - approximately +5 o C. The most unpleasant natural phenomenon was dry winds, which posed a serious threat to agriculture.

There was relatively little fertile soil in Phoenicia, so crop farming developed poorly, but horticulture was widespread.

Cities and villages were located along the coastline, which was associated with the main occupations of the Phoenicians - navigation, craft and trade. The names of the main Phoenician cities reflect the geographical conditions of the country.

So, in the north there was a city that the Greeks called Byblos, in translation it meant mountain. The largest of the Phoenician cities, the Greeks called Tire, which corresponds to - rock. Third Big city was called Sidon, which means fishing town.

The main occupations of the population of Phoenicia were trade, craft, navigation and fishing; these features of the economy were determined by the natural conditions and climate of the country.

Ancient cities of Phoenicia.

It is still difficult for scientists to recreate appearance cities; we only know that they were surrounded by several rows of massive walls; there were also high towers. Shields were nailed to the walls, which covered the loopholes, from where the archers hit the enemy. Strangers who entered the city found themselves in a maze of houses and crooked streets that led to temples and marketplaces.

(Additional) The Phoenician cities were centers of trade in Asia Minor. From products own production The Phoenicians sold, first of all, dried fish, olive oil, cedar wood, which was used to build ships. Phoenicia was also a center of transit trade. Its famous seafaring merchants established ties with various countries and peoples.

Craft.

Crafts developed in the Phoenician cities from ancient times. The good fame of foundry workers, builders, weavers has stepped far beyond the borders of their native places.

Shipbuilding.

In Phoenicia, in contrast to Egypt and the Southern Mesopotamia, cedar and oak forests grew. What did it matter? (The Phoenicians knocked together strong ships from logs and went on distant voyages). Merchants brought woolen fabrics, glassware and other products for sale. An ancient legend says that the Phoenicians were the inventors of glass.

Glass.

Once a Phoenician merchant ship carrying a cargo of soda landed on a sandy shore. The merchants decided to have lunch, lit a fire, took out pots, but did not find any stones to put on. Then, instead of stones, they used pieces of rock soda taken from ships. The fire was strong, the soda melted and mixed with sand and shells: jets of a transparent liquid flowed from the fire. This liquid was glass.

It is difficult to say how true this story is. However, it is known that glass can actually be welded from soda, sand and shells (lime). And the Phoenicians, indeed, were among the first to learn how to make transparent glass.

It was in Phoenicia that glass of various grades, from dark and opaque to colorless and transparent, was produced. Where was it used? Glass in ancient times was not inserted, as it is now in window frames. Made from it various decorations, vessels that were highly valued; the walls of houses were also trimmed with glass.

Exercise: scientists believe that the creation of glass in importance and significance can be compared with the discovery of metals, with the invention of pottery, with the advent of weaving. Are scientists right? (Like fabric and earthenware, glass does not exist in nature in finished form. His invention is one of the largest in the history of mankind. And today glass plays a big role in everyday life, every home has window panes and various glass objects.)

Purple paint.

In many Phoenician cities, primarily in Tire and Sidon, the purple paint extraction, highly valued in the countries of the ancient world. How was this dye discovered?

Student's story: It is said that once a Phoenician shepherd was tending his flock not far from the sea coast. His dog chewed on a sea snail and returned to its owner with a purple muzzle. The shepherd thought that the dog had injured his muzzle with something, and began to wipe the imaginary blood with a piece of wool, but he did not find any wound; the wool has acquired a beautiful scarlet color.

Phoenician artisans learned to dye woolen fabrics with purple dye. Modern chemical dyes did not exist in antiquity. The paint could be either mineral (extracted from the earth), or vegetable or animal origin. How was purple dye obtained? The Phoenicians dived to the bottom of the sea and got out small shells with snails. Only a few drops of thick liquid could be extracted from each. It was the purple paint famous in antiquity. If the paint was kneaded thinly, then the fabric acquired a pink or scarlet color, if it was thicker, it became lilac-red. Fabrics dyed with purple dye sparkled in the sun, they did not fade or fade when washed. The price of purple fabrics was huge, so only very rich people bought them: kings, priests and military leaders.

What are the inventions of the Phoenicians? (Transparent glass, magenta paint)

They read a textbook about colonies p. 72 p. 3(find the Phoenician colonies on the map and mark them on the outline map)

Slave traders.

The Phoenicians were skilled craftsmen and brave sailors, but they were notorious for being greedy and cunning slave traders: it happened that they stole children.

Imagine, Phoenician merchants landed on the shore and laid out their goods. Here are magnificent purple fabrics, glass beads and incense bottles, here are items made of gold, amber and ivory ... A crowd has gathered around: some buy, and some just stare at beautiful and outlandish goods. And there are a lot of kids here. “Oh, what nice boys! - says the merchant, turning to two friends. - Here's a cake for you with honey. I like you both, you are so much like my sons. I'll give you my belt... - The merchant pretends to take off his belt. - However, no, I have something better on the ship: do you want to get a small dagger each? The boys willingly go with the Phoenician to the ship. The rest of the merchants instantly collect their goods, raise the anchor and the ship sets sail. Mothers run along the shore in horror, screaming, tearing their hair. But they will never see their sons again. Somewhere in a foreign distant land, the Phoenicians will sell the boys into slavery.

ancient alphabet.

Phoenician merchants needed to keep records in order to trade successfully. They got acquainted with the Egyptian letter and clutched their heads: no, such a letter does not suit us! What are the difficulties of Egyptian writing?

The Phoenicians got acquainted with cuneiform writing, it also seemed difficult to them. How?

Then the Phoenicians created their own letter - they created new system letters.

What are the advantages of the Phoenician writing over the writing of Egypt or Mesopotamia?

Reading paragraph 4 § 15 p.73.

What is the disadvantage of the Phoenician alphabet?

C.74 - lettering: “g” - gimel (Phoenician for “camel”) Does this letter look like this animal? What about a camel's hump?

"D" - dalet (in Phoenician "door") - resembled the entrance to the tent.

"M" - mem (Phoenician for "water") - resembled waves.

Conclusion: The similarity of Russian letters with Phoenician is not accidental: the Greek alphabet was created on the basis of the Phoenician alphabet, and on its basis Russian and many others.

Generalization: all Phoenician letters are consonants, vowels were skipped when writing. The lack of vowels made it difficult to read.

What is the meaning of the Phoenician alphabet?

5. Consolidation of knowledge and methods of action.

Testing:

1. What ancient state was located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea?

( Egypt, Lydia, Media, Phoenicia)

2. The ancient Phoenicians knew the secret of making what substance?

(Gunpowder, paper, glass, porcelain)

3. How many letters are in the Phoenician alphabet?

4 . What fruit did the Phoenicians eat?

(Ficus. palm trees, olives, feijoa)

5. What was the main occupation of the Phoenicians?

( Navigation, trade; agriculture; warfare; winemaking)

6. What city did the Phoenicians found in North Africa?

(Troy, Alexandria, Thebes, Carthage)

7. What did the Greeks borrow from the Phoenicians?

(Maps, compass, alphabet, glass)

8. From what the ancient Phoenicians got the famous purple color that went to dyeing expensive fabrics?

(From olives, from rare minerals, from sea shells, from plant juice)

9. Choose the appropriate answer for each question.

a) Settlements founded in the places of parking of ships.

b) A written sign corresponding to a sound.

c) Fragrant, fragrant substances used for cosmetic purposes.

d) The robbery craft that the Phoenicians were engaged in.

( Incense, colony, piracy, letter, sound)

10. Choose the appropriate answer for each question.

a) A substance used to make dishes.

b) The first letter of the Phoenician alphabet.

c) purple-red color.

d) A product obtained from olives.

(Aleph, oil, glass, alpha, purple)

6. Homework.

§ 15, assignments in the workbook.

Before appearing on your screen, this article was converted into optical signals and transmitted at a speed of ~201,000 km / s over a fiber optic cable. The cable is based on fibers made of the thinnest glass, which is 30 times more transparent than pure water. The technology was made available by Corning Incorporated. In 1970, using the results of many years of research by scientists around the world, she patented a cable capable of transmitting large amounts of information over long distances.

If you're reading on a smartphone, don't forget to thank Steve Jobs, who in 2006 asked Corning Inc. to develop a thin yet durable screen for the iPhone. The result - Gorilla Glass - now dominates the market mobile devices. Screens of smartphones with Gorilla Glass of the fifth generation do not crack after being dropped in 80% of cases (test devices fell from a height of 1.6 meters - at this level people usually hold the phone - onto a hard surface).

And that's not all. Without glass, the world would be unrecognizable. Thanks to him, glasses, light bulbs and windows became available to mankind. But despite the omnipresence of glass, there is still a discussion in the scientific community about the definition of this concept. Some consider glass a solid, others a liquid. Many questions still remain unanswered: for example, why one type of glass is stronger than another, or why certain glass blends have precisely such optical and structural properties. Add to this the existing databases of glass types, one of which contains more than 350,000 currently known types, which makes it possible to create a huge number of different mixtures. The result is a truly interesting area of ​​research that produces amazing new products on a regular basis. Glass has had a huge impact on humanity, and it is safe to say that glass shapes the face of our civilization.

"We've been using glass for thousands of years, but we still don't understand what glass is all about," says Mathieu Boshi, glass expert and member of the research team. University of California In Los Angeles. As a rule, glass is obtained by heating and then rapidly cooling a mixture of several substances. For example, sand (silicon dioxide), lime and soda are used to create flat window glass. Silicon provides transparency, calcium provides strength, and soda reduces the melting point. " Fast cooling prevents crystallization of the glass,” says Steve Martin, glass scientist at Iowa State University.

It is because of the prevention of crystallization that glass is considered an amorphous substance - rather than a solid or liquid. The atoms of the glass strive to restore the crystal structure, but they cannot, as they freeze in place during the process of its manufacture. You may have heard that the glass in the windows of ancient cathedrals flows down over time, and therefore becomes thicker at the base. This statement is erroneous: ancient manufacturing technologies simply did not allow making even glass. But it is still in motion, albeit very slowly. The results of a study published last year in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society showed that at room temperature, the glass of an ancient cathedral would take about one billion years to move one nanometer of matter.

Humans have been making tools from obsidian and other types of volcanic glass since the dawn of civilization, and the first man-made glass was first made in Mesopotamia just over 4,000 years ago. It was probably obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of ceramic glaze. Soon this technology was borrowed by the ancient Egyptians. Executive Director Museum of Glass in Corning Carol White claims that the first glass objects were beads, charms and twigs to create mosaic glass. Often, with the help of minerals, they were given the appearance of another material.

“By the beginning of the second millennium BC, artisans began to make small vessels vase type. Archaeologists have found cuneiform tablets describing the process, but they were written in an arcane language designed to hide production secrets,” adds White.

By the time of the rise of the Roman Empire, glassmaking had become an important branch of the economy. The writer Petronius tells the story of a craftsman who appeared before the emperor Tiberius with a piece of supposedly indestructible glass. "Does anyone else know how to make glass like this?" - Tiberius asked the craftsman. “No,” the artisan replied, emphasizing his own importance. Tiberius, without warning, ordered the beheading of the poor fellow. Although the motives of Tiberius are not known for certain, it can be assumed that such an invention could destroy the glass industry of the empire.

The first major innovation in glassmaking occurred in the first century BC, when glass began to be blown around Jerusalem. Soon the Romans figured out how to make glass more or less transparent: this is how the first glass windows appeared. There was a significant shift in the perception of glass, as it had previously been valued only for its decorative properties. Instead of admiring the glass, people began to look through it. Over the following centuries, the Romans produced glass on an industrial scale, and it eventually spread throughout Eurasia.

At that time, science as such did not exist, and the glass was fanned with a halo of mystery. For example, in the fourth century AD, the Romans created the famous Lycurgus goblet, which changes color from green to red depending on the angle of the light. Modern research has shown that the incredible property of the goblet is due to the presence of silver and gold nanoparticles.

In the Middle Ages, the advanced secrets of glass making were kept in Europe and the Arab countries. In the era of the High Middle Ages, Europeans began the production of stained glass. According to Carol White, the majestic glass paintings played a huge role in the study of the catechism by the illiterate population. No wonder stained glass windows are also called bibles for the poor.

Although window panes date back to the Roman era, they were still expensive and difficult to obtain. But everything changes with the construction of the Crystal Palace for the World Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was an exhibition hall with a glass area of ​​93,000 square meters. m. - four times more than the UN headquarters in New York, built a century later. “The Crystal Palace showed people the dignity and beauty of window panes, it influenced architecture and consumer demand,” says Alan McLenaghan, director of SageGlass, a company specializing in tinted windows and other glass products. The Crystal Palace burned down in 1936, but a few years later window glass became more affordable thanks to the British company Pilkington, whose employees invented the technique of creating heat-polished glass by pouring molten glass mass onto a layer of molten tin.

In the 13th century, long before window panes became ubiquitous, the first glasses were created by unknown inventors. The invention helped in the fight against illiteracy and laid the foundation for the further improvement of lenses, which made it possible to see things that were previously unknown. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Venetians borrowed the achievements of craftsmen from the Middle East and Asia Minor and improved the process of creating transparent glass called "crystallo". One technique involved the careful melting of quartz pebbles along with the ashes of salt-loving plants, which provided the correct ratio of silica, manganese and sodium, which at that time, of course, was not suspected. It was vital to keep the rules for making glass a secret. Despite the high status that all glass manufacturers had, the punishment for crossing the border of the Republic of Venice for them was the death penalty. The Venetians were leaders in the glass market for the next 200 years.

Using glass of their own production, the Venetians also created the first mirrors. There are not enough words to describe all the changes that their appearance entailed. Earlier mirrors were made of polished metal or obsidian, they were very expensive and did not reflect light as effectively. The new mirrors made telescopes possible and revolutionized art: with their help, the Italian sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi developed linear perspective in 1425. The consciousness of people has changed. The writer Ian Mortimer even suggested that before the advent of glass mirrors, people did not perceive themselves as separate unique individuals, the concept of individual identity did not exist.

Glass has a wide range of applications. Around 1590, Hans Jansen and his son Zachary invented a microscope with two lenses at the ends of the tube, which gave nine times magnification. The Dutchman Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek has taken another step forward. As a relatively educated apprentice to a haberdashery merchant, Anthony often used a magnifying glass to count the threads of fabric, and in the process developed new methods for polishing and grinding lenses, which made it possible to magnify the image by 270 times. In 1670, with the help of his lenses, Leeuwenhoek accidentally discovered the existence of microorganisms: bacteria and protists.

The English scientist Robert Hooke improved Leeuwenhoek's microscope. He is the author of the famous work Micrographia, the first book on the microscopic world with detailed engravings of previously unseen images, such as textures of a sponge or images of fleas. "Decorated with gleaming black armour, thin and neatly built," Hooke wrote of fleas. Looking at the bark of a cork tree through a microscope, the structure of which resembled honeycombs and monastic cells, Hooke coined the term "cage". These advances shocked science and led, among other things, to the emergence of microbiology and the germ theory of disease.

The appearance of glass test tubes and pipettes in laboratories around the world made it possible to measure and mix various substances and expose them to all kinds of influences. Glass tools contributed to the development of chemistry and medicine, and also made possible the appearance of the steam engine and the internal combustion engine.

While some scientists fiddled with microscopes and beakers, others turned their gaze to the sky. It is not known for certain who invented the telescope, although the first mention of this device was found in the Netherlands in 1608. The telescope became famous thanks to Galileo, who improved the existing design and began to study celestial bodies. In the course of observing the satellites of Jupiter, he came to the conclusion that the geocentric model of the world does not make sense, which caused dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church. The Inquisition Commission of 1616 concluded that the statement about heliocentrism was "absurd and absurd from a philosophical point of view and, moreover, formally heretical, since its expressions are in many ways contrary to Holy Scripture." As you can see, glass can lead to sin.

The influence of glass on our lives is not weakening. Looking to the future, researchers hope to make an equally significant breakthrough using glass to neutralize nuclear waste, create safe batteries, and design biomedical implants. Engineers develop high-tech touch screens, chameleon glass, safety glass.

The next time you see a glass object, think about it, is it not strange that a material born of earth and fire, bound like a pond by a cover of ice, constantly in atomic purgatory, makes human life so much easier and promotes progress. Look carefully not through the glass, as usual, but directly at it, and remember how many phenomena would remain inaccessible to the human eye if we did not have material at hand that is itself barely noticeable.