The Glass
Home Page >
The Glass
The glass is one of the most surprising discoveries of the man and its history is full of mysteries. Although the historians do not have the precise data about its origin, glass objects have been found in the Egyptian necropolis, therefore, it is thought that the glass was already known at least 4,000 years B.C. and that it was discovered occasionally.
Some authors point the Phoenician navigators as the pioneers of the glass industry. Anchored in a beach of Syria coast, the Phoenicians improvised a fire using saltpeter and soda and, some time after, they noticed that from the fire was pouring a shining substance that would solidify immediately. There the glass was borne.
Development
Only close to the year 100 B.C., the manufacturing techniques were developed. It was when the Romans started to blow inside molds in the manufacturing of glass, which made possible its series production. The apogee of this process happened on the XIII century in Venice. After the fires provoked by the glass furnace of the time, the glass industry was transferred to Murano, an island close to Venice. The glassware from Murano produced glass in several colors, a milestone of the glass history and the reputation of its crystals and mirrors lives on. Until 1900, the production of this raw material was still considered an almost secret art.
France was manufacturing glass since the Romans era. However, only in the end of the XVIII century the industry has flourished and reached a degree of notable perfection. In the middle of this century, the French King, Louis XIV, gathered some glass masters and created the Company Saint-Gobain, so that the mirrors for the Palace of Versailles in France were made, one of the most ancient companies of the world, today, a private company.
The modern industry of the glass emerged with the industrial revolution and the mechanization of the processes. In 1952, in England, Pilkington developed the process to produce the Float glass, also known as crystal, which caused a revolution in the technology of this prosperous industry.
In Brazil
The history of the glass industry in Brazil started with the first Dutch invasions in the period between 1624 and 1635, in Olinda and Recife (PE), where the first glass shop was created by four craftsmen who accompanied the prince Maurice of Nassau. The shop manufactured glasses for windows, cups and bottles. With the leave of the Dutch, the factory closed.
The glass returned to the economic map of the country in 1810, when, on January 12th of this year, the Portuguese Francisco Ignácio da Siqueira Nobre received a charter authorizing the installation of a glass industry in Brazil. The factory installed in Bahia produced flat glasses, of white crystal, vials, big bottles and bottles. It started to operate in 1812. In 1825 it closed due to the major financial difficulties.
In 1839, an Italian, called Folco, founded in Rio de Janeiro the National Factory of Glasses in São Roque, with 43 Italian and Brazilian workmen, with crucible furnace and entirely manual process. It suffers with the competition of imported products from Europe and remains of consumption that are sold at any price. In 1861 however, the Brazilian glass industry presented its products in the national exhibition in Escola Central, in largo São Francisco, Rio de Janeiro.
In 1878, Francisco Antônio Esberard founded the factory Vidros e Cristais do Brasil in São Cristóvão (RJ). The factory worked with four large furnaces and three smaller ones, and with steam engine and electric machines. It manufactured glasses for lanterns, windows, cups and table articles and imported its machines from Europe to manufacture bottles and vials. Its crystal was compared to the traditional Baccarat one. It employed 600 people among workmen and glass artists. The Glass factory Esberard was active until 1940. Another factory of highlighted presence was Fratelli Vita, from Bahia, founded in 1902, that produced bottles for soda, soft drinks, and quality crystals.
Until the XX century, the glass production was mainly artisanal, using the processes of blowing and pressing, and the pieces were produced one by one. It was from the beginning of the XX century that the glass industry developed with the introduction of continuous furnaces of heat recovery and equipped with semi or totally automatic machined for the mass production.
In 1982, the French industry Saint-Gobain and the English Pilkington united their strengths to build the first float glass factory of Brazil, Cebrace, in the region of Vale do Paraíba, in São Paulo state.
The first line was built in Jacareí in 1982, the second one in Caçapava in 1989, and the third one also in Jacareí, in 1996.
In 2004, Cebrace inaugurated its fourth line in Barra Velha (SC). Together, the four units produce 2,700 tons of glass per day.
Definition
Glass is an inorganic, homogeneous and amorphous substance obtained through the cooling of a molten mass. Its main qualities are the transparence and hardness. The glass has uncountable applications in the most varied industries, given its inalterability characteristics, hardness, resistance and thermal, optical and acoustic properties, becoming one of the few materials yet irreplaceable, being every time more present in the technological development researches for the well-being of the man.
Qualities & Features
- Recyclability
- Transparence (permeable to light)
- Hardness
- Non absorbance
- Great dielectric insulator
- Low thermal conductivity
- Abundant resources in the nature
- Durability
Curiosities
Did you know?
1) With 1kg of shard you can make 1kg of new glass
2) The same glass can be reused how many times you need
3) A glass throw in the nature takes 4 thousand years to disappear
4) Brazil has reached an index of 45% in the reuse of packages related to the total production of the country that is of 1,280 tons/year, according to the Brazilian Association of Glass Industries (Abividro).