History of Early Glassmaking

Early Glassmaking

The main ingredient in glass is silicon Dioxide, SiO2, which is found in nature as sand. As modern as glass seems, glass blowing was actually first developed by humans around 30 B.C. Early humans might have discovered glass naturally occurring in the environment, which gets formed when lightning strikes sand. Glass was made throughout many different humans in history, such as the Romans, Egyptians, and continuous civilizations in history leading up until the present day. In the early 1800s there was an increasing demand for glass and especially glass windows. Also, colored glass was becoming more and more popular. Glassboro, being a town based on glass, experienced a high demand for glass during this time. Some techniques to give glass a color, used around the world and in Glassboro, include:


Adding cobalt oxide to the glass mixture for a blue color:

Adding manganese oxide to the mixture for an amethyst color:

Adding iron oxide with the molten glass to make a green color:

Adding iron/sulfur oxide for a brown or amber color:

Adding gold oxide to the molten glass mixture for a red color:

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