Glass - where did it come from?

Glass history

Nobody knows when and by whom glass was invented, however we know it was long time ago and probably its invention happened accidentally (as many inventions in history of mankind).

According to one, romantic story, glass was invented by Phoenicians while lighting a bonfire on sandy coast, during one of their trade expeditions. At daybreak, when bonfire went out, they found shiny, hard globules which were hidden in remnants of burnt wood. As they had well developed trade sense, such invention was considered as very successful in the near future.

Nowadays, it's common knowledge that this story does not reflect reality as such, as glass was known considerably earlier. The oldest well-known articles come from Mesopotamia and Egypt and the date of their origin is about 3400 BC. These products did not reflect glass as it's known at present - they were frosted, opaque and without well-defined colour.

In the course of time, people learnt how to colour glass, what caused that every rich and smart lady of those days, regarded coloured glass beats as a obligatory jewel. Meanwhile, Phoenicians invented glass blowing, what accelerated and facilitated the production of glass dishes, however it was still far from glittering and transparent material. Not till then, did the Romans produce glass which started to be similar to what we have today, by adding up manganese ore to the molten glass. By then, glass became very luxurious and even though it had been applied as universal material before, its value exceeded purchasing possibilities of ordinary mortals. During one expedition, Roman consul Pompeius bought richly embellished milk cup, made of glass, for which Emperor Neron paid 300 talents. At those days, it was enormous sum of money equivalent to today's several millions dollars.

With a passage of time, glass and methods of making it hadn't changed much. Know-how knowledge was handed on from generation to generation in almost unchanged form.

In Middle Ages, Venice became the place, where glass production was brought to perfection. Glass produced by Venetian masters was more transparent and harder. Its quality was so good, that there were many attempts to emulate it in different places of world, however results were poor. This fact as well as high prices of such products caused, that many powers of those days tried deceitfully to capture the knowledge of Venetian craftsmen. To get the key to this mystery, craftsmen were kidnapped or bribed. As a result, in XIII century, glass production was moved from Venice and located on Murano island. This way glass masters as well as formula and technology were kept safe. Additionally, very rigorous principles were made, just to protect secrets of producing glass. These secrets were handed on from generation to generation in strictest confidence just on Murano area. For leaving island people might have lost their hand. What's more, traitors could have been sentenced to long standing prison or galley for passing on secret information. Glass masters' daughters were allowed to marry only Venetian men. These rigorous rules had been obeyed for over 200 years and Venice inhabitants managed to keep the production of glass dishes and tiles from which, they made mosaics. Until XV century, Venice glass predominated over European market.

Nowadays, Murano does not posses any monopole of smart glass production, although its glass delights with beauty and unusual quality. While visiting Venice, it is worth buying a glass souvenir even though that they are still terribly expensive (as before centuries).

Since XVII century, there had been substantial development of glass production. Czech Republic became the leader of the glass trade. It contributed to the production of so called "czech crystal", that is potassium-calcareous glass called in other words chalky glass. In 1683, the breakthrough took place, as one of czech craftsmen added chalk and potas carbonade to molten glass for the first time. That way more precious glass was produced. It was harder and more shiny. At the end of XVII century, Englishmen uncovered that quality of glass can be improved even more simply by adding lead oxide.

The development of technical sciences in XIX century brought significant technological progress in glass production, whereas from the beginning of XX century the violent development of mechanization and automation took place. Traditional methods of producing glass started to be pushed out by scientific methods, based on the field of chemistry and physics.

The oldest glass articles deriving from the breakthrough of X and XI century were found in Poland in Wolin, whereas the first glass workshop was discovered between XII-XIII century in Kruszwica. In XVI century, around 30 glass factories flourished in Poland, while production of glassware, mirrors and panes had its peak in XVIII century.

At present, Poland in well-known manufacturer of domestic and decorative glass. Krosno together with its districts is known as one of its kind glass area, abounding in traditions.