NEW WORK FOR GLASS TO DO

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22337, 26 February 1938, Page 21

NEW WORK FOR GLASS TO DO

Takes New Shapes

A FEW years ago, if it had entered the head of a housewife to fry eggs in a glass

frying-pan over her gas flame, there would have at once been a catastrophe to eggs and glass alike, and a protest would probably have been registered by other members of the family. For even a man who had never seen the inside of a kitchen knew that "glass cannot stand fire!" But as the fairy tajes say, that was "once upon a time." To-day, both housewife and guest are able to enjoy seeing the smoking hot dishes served in the glass vessels in which they were cooked, roasted, or baked. For to-day we have the famous "Jena glass" coming from that celebrated university city in Thuringia, which was also for centuries the home of glass-mak-ing. This fire and heat-proof glass is only one of the many examples of what modern chemical and physical science has done in developing this natural product, which was known as far back as the age of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Using a special quality of glass which is to a high degree insensitive to changes in temperature, the German glass industry has recently begun manufacturing glass hotwater tanks for the kitchen and the bathroom, and other containers of a like character. Glass is being used for refrigeration coils, and pipes for the carrying of drinking water, beer, etc., which has greatly appealed to owners of restaurants, hostelries, etc., because of the hygienic properties of glass. In house-building, glass is being used not only for windows, portions of the interior walls,

Heat-proof and Fireproof, It

and for flooring, but also for many smaller articles such as door-knobs, which were formerly always made either of wood or metal. To shut out sound and cold, layers of "glass cotton" or "glass wool" between the outer and inner walls of a house have proved highly efficient. This so-called "spun glass" has been much perfected in the German glass industry, and is now also used for the insulating of steam pipes, etc. The little glass threads, of a fineness of from two to 10 one-thousandths of a millimeter, are so pliable that they may be woven into textures having the appearance of silk, and at the same time impervious to the action of water and chemicals. They are also non-inflammable. Every Shade of Colour Some very important results have been recently obtained, as is clearly shown from the glass exhibits at the large fairs and expositions of the last year or so, such as the Leipzig Spring Fair and the Dusseldorf Exposition, "A Nation at Work." Glass can now be produced in every shade of colour, there is glass through which ultra-red and ultraviolet rays can pass, and there is glass which absorbs these rays. Every size and type of electric lamp, electric tube, and radio lamps for sending and receiving are now to be had, in addition to the Roentgen tubes.

The almost unlimited capacity which glass has to receive colouring matter has naturally given it an important place in the production of objects of art, especially decorative art. Its use for artistic purposes is of ancient origin, and in Germany the ornamental glass work of Bavaria and Thurjngia has been famous for centuries. Consider for a moment the Christmas-tree decorations, the necklaces of glass beads, the glass vases, pitchers, and goblets, and the little glass statues, which are produced in the valleys of the Thuringian mountains and in the Bavarian forests, and from there find their way to every distant corner of the globe. Modern glass need not necessarily be fragile or easily breakable. It has been a great boon to travellers by rail and by motor that unbreakable glass has been discovered. There is such a "safety" glass made in Germany which is six times as flexible, or six times less brittle than ordinary window glass. For modern traffic requirements, the discovery of certain forms of synthetic crystal which are able to polarise light-rays has proved of great advantage. The glass windows made from such crystal material are invaluable to the motorist, as they prevent his being blinded by the sun or other strong light while driving.