Recently I bought this beautiful book regarding the glass Invention ‘The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan.
This book has one complete chapter dedicated to Glass. The book effortlessly transported me into a time when we humans lived in sync with earth and not as the most powerful creatures who’s hunger for resources never seems to slow down.
The book talks about the origins of glass; this is no ordinary story of the invention where a scientist had his Eureka moment.
Instead, it’s a story which can easily qualify to be in a children’s bedtime storybook. It goes like this…
“Once a ship belonging to some traders in natural soda (Nitrum) put ashore here (near the river Belus) and that they scattered along the shore to prepare a meal. Since, however, no stones for supporting their cauldrons were forthcoming, they rested them on lumps of soda from their cargo.
When these became heated and were completely mingled with the sand on the beach a strange liquid flowed in streams; and this, it is said, was the origin of glass, (Pliny the Elder, 1st century AD).
So the origin of glass is somewhat obscure but long predates the account given by Pliny the Elder.”
(The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49)
Honestly, up till now I always thought that glass was invented somewhere during the industrial revolution and of course I was wrong by hundreds and thousands of years. Well so much for my history knowledge. I found a few other interesting notes which I found interesting.
- The first known objects in the glass were beads and amulets dating to 2500 BC from Mesopotamia region.
- The first glass vessels were probably made before 1500 BC around western Asia.
- Glass Blowing, a technique was used to produce our artistic awards such as Regency Crystal Award and Signature Crystal Award was discovered sometime around 1st century BC on the coast of Syria.
- Float glass or window glass which we use for awards was a Roman invention used in Italy around 1st century AD.
(The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49-51)
Beautiful creativity done on Glass:
