Bohemian glass, also referred to as Bohemia crystal, is glass produced in the regions of Bohemia and Silesia, now parts of the Czech Republic. It has a centuries long history of being internationally recognised for its high quality, craftsmanship, beauty and often innovative designs. Hand-cut, engraved, blown and painted decorative glassware ranging from champagne flutes…
Glass is generally obtained by melting a mix made up of quartz sand, limestone, sodium (or potassium) carbonate and auxiliary materials in special furnaces. The physical properties of the glass are determined by their composition and the heat treatment it is subjected to. The symbolic name of anti-ex glass refers to safety glass. Safety glass…
In the beginning there was sand and fire, and then events that produced small flashes of genius in the mind of ancient man, leading to the discovery of glass and what is now today its industry. An important moment in the evolution of glass was the 1st century CE, when a Roman master invented a…
Using quality products is not just the desire of every consumer, but in the case of many products, a question of legislation. The same goes for medicines, where there are strict requirements as to the quality of the product both at release (following manufacture) as well as the last day of possible use (termed as…
Sand, limestone and sodium (or potassium) carbonate – elements which seem quite distinct, don’t they? But could it be that they have something in common – how about it? YES, THEY DO! By melting these components in special ovens at extremely hight temperatures, alongside auxiliary substances, we get the fascinating GLASS – used for millennia…
The lunar halo was observed by people before they had come up with any explanation about the causes for its “appearance”. Today, we know that it is caused by the phenomenon of light refraction. In 1666, when Isaac Newton discovered that light passing through a diaphragm and then through a crystal prism turns into a…
Light is essential to life, being involved in various chemical and biochemical reactions. Yet its effect is not always welcome. There are a series of substances which break down when light is present. Thus, for a pharmacist or a chemist, it is important that these substances be shielded from rays of light. Equally important to…
Even if it strains belief, in the not-so-distant past there were people who would willingly expose themselves to extremely high levels of radiation to manufacture uranium glass. As the name implies, uranium glass is a special glass made from uranium oxide, which lends it a yellow or yellowish-green hue. The concentration of uranium in this…
From the green of wine and beer bottles, the red, yellow and green of traffic lights, coloured glass makes its presence felt in our everyday life. The origins of these colours is not something we often consider, yet a series of distinct elements are responsible for those blue, yellow, green and violet reflections which delight…
If the attempts to create the first steps of colouring glass take us back five thousand years into the past to the territory of (ancient) Carthage, and the attempts to manufacture windows lead us towards ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece or Rome, the history of stained glass goes back to Mediaeval Europe, when stained glass compositions…