GLASS IN WARFARE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 225, 24 September 1942, Page 2

GLASS IN WARFARE

To the layman glass must seem such a fragile commodity as to be unlikely to have any more uses in war-time than it has in days of peace, but, in fact, it is one of the most important and widely used munitions. The Royal Navy and the Army need it for. range-finders in submarines and tanks, for gun-sights, binoculars, telescopes, sextants, compasses, prisms, lenses, a great variety of signal and other lamps; it is needed for radio valves, searchlights, flood-lights, and motor-vehicles; lor railway and traffic s>jnals, petrol pumps; and for a wide range of lighting and heating purposes in factories, offices, and in homes. The Royal Air Force uses perhaps more glass than either of the other armed forces. The aeroplane contains an almost bewildering number of dials and lights—navigation lights, landing lights, formation lights, and so on—to say nothing of wireless and other equipment. Glass plays its part in radio-location, in aerial lighthouses, flare-paths, photography. Until shortly before the war the high-grade sand essential for the making of optical glass had to be procured from Germany. Fortunately, adequate deposits were discovered in Argil shire, on the banks of Loch Aline, and after purification it has proved to be superior to anything previously known. Another deposit has since been found in Ireland.