The threat of superglass. Fear, greed, and the suppression of technology
Twice in history, that i know of, there appears to happen the invention of a durable glass that so threatens people who benefit from the fragile nature of ordinary drinkware glass that they attempt to contain and eradicate the knowledge of how to produce it.
There is a tale about an emporer (Roman, i think) who has a visitor successfully demonstrate the durablility of his secret glass, by knocking it off a table. The emperor realizes how valuable this would be and how it would upset the current glass industry (I guess repeat business is a huge part of glass making profits?), so he has the person killed along with the knowledge of the secret process
In the 1960s(?) East Germany develops a durable line of glassware specially for it unbreakalbe properties, it is twice as durable as regular glassware and might be tempered. In the 1990s, during the reunification of Germany, the means to produce this glassware were stomped out because of their threat to repeat business and profit making
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I do wonder if these 2 types of glass were made with similar processes
What little I’ve read about the modern durable glassware manufacturing process reminded me of something like salt glazing ceramics. It seems that they coated, or doped it with something ( I can’t recall what, but it is not a secret) while it was malleable.
- Ancient people don’t seem to have been great at glass, but they were stupendous at pottery
- They would have been familiar with chucking some random stuff into a kiln, while the clay was firing, to get different effects on the surface
I can imagine them doing the same thing to glass, at any and all stages of manufacturing. That must have returned some interesting results, one of which could have been the superglass.