Glass Information and Education

Glass in the 19th Century 1 2 3

During the nineteenth century, basic methods of glass production changed suprisingly little. More or less the same tools and processes that were in use at the beginning of the century were still being employed at its end, and not even in industrial glass did mechanization make much of an impact. On the other hand, from being a slightly haphazard affair with a faint air of mystery still attached to it, glass-making became much more scientifically based as the century progressed. Chemists began to be employed in the leading glasshouses, and it was not unusual for factory owners themselves to be accomplished chemists. Furnace design was improved. too, resulting not just in economkies in fuel but in consistently higher temperatures and a cleaner atmosphere less likely to contaminate the glass. These scientific and technical advances gave glass-makers the confidence to experiment, and resulted in the enormous diversity of colour, shape, technique and decoration that characterizes nineteenth-century glass.

Glass Information from The History of Glass by Dan Klein and Ward LLoyd