According to historical records, the production of glassware by blowing can be traced back to the 1st century AD. However, the beginning of the history of glass predates the 1st century, and there are at least three versions of legends about its origin.
One version suggests that glass was invented by the Phoenicians (Lebanese). More than three thousand years ago, there was a beautiful sandbar along the mouth of the Beirut River in the Mediterranean coast. One day, a Phoenician merchant ship passed by carrying large chunks of natural soda (mainly composed of sodium carbonate). Due to the low tide of the sea, the large merchant ship ran aground on the beach at the mouth of the river. The waiting crew had nothing to do and needed to pass the time. They all went ashore for a walk and amusement. At noon, one of the crew members proposed a riverbank picnic. So everyone brought a cooking pot from the ship and also carried a few pieces of natural soda. They propped up the big pot with soda and cooked it over a fire, enjoying themselves. After dinner, as he was preparing to return to the ship, a crew member suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Look, what's this? It's sparkling and beautiful!" The piece he picked up from the ashes was as clear as water and crystal clear as ice in the sunlight, truly an unprecedented magical treasure... The Phoenicians accidentally discovered the secret of glass and quickly began the production of glass: using specially made stoves, Melt quartz sand and soda together to produce glass liquid, and then make large and small glass balls and beads, which are continuously transported to various parts of the world. Ethnic groups outside of them have never seen such round, shiny and beautiful beads, and have generously donated to exchange these glass treasures. For this reason, the Phoenicians made a great fortune. However, there was no airtight wall in the world, and soon the Egyptians also made glass in the same way...
The second version insists that the first piece of glass appeared in ancient Egypt. It is said that about five or six thousand years ago, there was a clever and meticulous potter in ancient Egypt. Once, when he took out the pottery pot from the kiln, he found a shiny object inside. He didn't let go of this small accident, carefully analyzed the ingredients in the clay, and then experimented and fired again and again to finally find out that this shiny thing was fired with a mixture of sand and soda. It should be glass.
Version 3: A caravan is passing through the vast desert. As night fell and the desert temperature plummeted, they brought dry seabuckthorn to light a fire and cook, driving away the cold. The next day, at sunrise in the desert, people unexpectedly discovered in the sand pile before leaving that there were many shining treasures in the ashes buried the night before yesterday. Everyone cheered and cheered, and glass was produced in this way.
The above three versions have significant differences, but the descriptions of the raw materials for glass and the need for heating during production are roughly the same. In terms of chemical properties, glass refers to amorphous inorganic substances produced through three processes: "melting", "cooling", and "solidification". The main raw material is quartz sand (SiO2), so it is entirely possible that it was born on beaches or deserts. It is similar to a solid in appearance and somewhat liquid in microstructure. In short, it is a special state of matter between liquid and crystal. However, its melting point is as high as 1450 ℃! How could the fire chamber under the rice cooker possibly reach this temperature? So, legend is legend, and the origin of glass is far from as clear as its texture.
Around 1926, a scientist named W.L. Monro in the United States became suspicious and followed Pliny's approach: he went to the sandy beach on the coast and set up a pot with soda blocks (i.e. soda ash), lit a fire, and conducted experiments. He generously added firewood to the fire from time to time, while also constantly using a fan to blow it, causing the flames to burn fiercely. Surprisingly, a few hours later, glass did indeed slip out of the pot! Subsequently, Monroe switched to using saltpeter to frame the pot, and the result was also that it slipped out of the glass. This fact indeed confirms that Pliny's narrative is not fictional, and through Monroe's actual experiments, it has been confirmed that this story is true. Later in 1938, when F. Rogers and A. Beard co wrote "Five Thousand Years of Glass," this story was also cited, indicating that Pliny's narrative in "Natural History" was not fictional, but purely factual.
So far, we still cannot assert the specific time and location of the world's first glass invention. It is generally believed that glass was born about 5000 years ago in the Mesopotamian plain and later spread to various parts of the world through Arabia.
Glass has evolved from a rare object to an indispensable practical item in daily life over thousands of years of human history, and has come a long way. From the rare treasures on the pharaoh's crown to the heavenly light in the Catholic Church, from Venice under the ancient Roman Empire to the beer sentiment emerging from the Germanic forest... At the end of the 19th century, glass finally became a common product that could be formed by pressing, blowing, pulling, and other methods, and mass-produced through grinding, carving, corrosion, and other techniques.
