History of Glass

 

As early as 4000 BC, the very first glass was used in the Middle East as a glaze to decorate beads.It was not until 1500 BC that the first hollow glass container was made by covering a sand core with a layer of molten glass. By 1550 coloured glass jars were fairly widespread and used for cooking and drinking. The earliest known clear glass is a vase found in Nineveh in Assyria, dating from around 800 BC.Glass blowing was the most common way to make glass containers from the First Century BC but it was not until the First Century AD when colourless glass was produced. The Venetians, in particular, gained a reputation for technical skill and artistic ability in the making of glass bottles.Until the 18th and 19th centuries, glass was extremely expensive and had limited applications such as stained glass windows for churches.But in 1887, glass making developed from traditional mouth blowing to a semi-automatic process - a machine capable of producing 200 bottles per hour was designed in England. Large scale manufacture began with the industrial revolution, with the mass production of glass containers beginning at the onset of the 20th century and glass light bulb production in 1926.Today, glass is perceived as the packaging material of choice for discerning consumers. Glass is made from a mixture of all natural ingredients: sand, soda ash and limestone. With increasing consumer concern for the environment, glass is an ideal material for recycling and so will long be an ideal pure, packaging material for food and drink.