How Communists Made Unbreakable Glass 

You don't market unbreakable glass to people that sell glass, you market to the people that use the glass.

I thought I was about to hear a story where some mad scientists had made a glass which gave out radiation poisining, but no. The fact that nobody was interested in such a product for their consumeirs is insane. I get a company like Coca-Cola, but surely someone would be interested

Microwaves. I'm still using the microwave my dad bought in 1985. It gets used on average once a day, and hasn't broken once. Meanwhile microwaves built today last between 5-10 years. Not 40+ If it ever breaks I'm getting it repaired, no way am I replacing it.

I’m an Italian mechanical engineer. Chemically tempered glass is not “for free”, it have a higher cost. But surely improve the durability of objects made in glass. A lot. Note: the thin layer of glass of your smartphone is actually chemically tempered but it is possible to brake. And when it happens, all the elastic energy is released, that is quite dangerous. Clearly a thicker layer of glass becomes a really interesting, as you can see in the video.

Fun fact: In 1999 the Czech republic had made a film called "Pelíšky" and in one of the scenes there is small talk about the unbreakable glasses breaking.

I am living in Germany and never knew that we have unbreakable glass for over 50 years

Pharmaceutical companies also ask Is curing patients a sustainable business?

The lightbulb cartel isn't the whole story. While it's true that they favored lightbulbs that would have to be replaced, those light bulbs are also better at making light. The key difference is how long and thick the filament is. A longer filament passes less current and a thicker filament heats up less. If the lightbulb is running at peak light producing temperatures it sublimates tungsten from the surface of the filament and it gets thinner and brighter until it burns out. If you start way at the other end of the spectrum you have a bulb which will last forever, but will always be using way more electricity per unit light than it needs to.

I have a set of unbreakable plates my mother bought 50 years ago. They are light weight, can be put into an oven, or microwave. She paid $10.00 for a set of 20 plates, and 20 bowls. I still have them and use them everyday. I have to say I have only broken one plate. My husband set it on top of the truck and for got it up there, it slide off the hood and he ran over it with a loaded Semi truck. I am proud to say it didn't break until the back set of tires rolled over it.

American: Communist glas?! Not in my country!!! _reloads shotgun_

1:45: Hilarious when you speak of the GDR, and the images you show are definitely from Munich, Bavaria, deep western Germany first the Karlstor at the Stachus, and then the towers of the Frauenkirche. Nice to see so old images of my city.

Imagine the true quality of stuff we could have if corporations weren't so sinnfully greedy, so utterly devoid of morals and goodness. Think of how many things that break regularly that just, wouldn't. Phones, ovens, washing machines, fridges, cups, electronics. It truly seems like greed triumphs over all.

In technical college (Berufsfachschule here in Germany) one of my teachers was proud of a lathe in the teaching workshop saying it was produced in the very city the school was in, was of exceptional quality and never broke down or had any problems despite being quite old already. But then he went on that the manufacturer quickly went out of business because their customers never bought replacement machines or spare parts, so the sales plummeted :/

What a twist that the majority of us were watching this video through super glass.

" Glass is glass, and glass breaks. " - Zack.

We need unbreakable glass. I gave my dad and his new wife a pair of VERY expensive Baccarat wine stem wear glasses. They were pieces of art. Perfectly shaped, amazingly thin and the stem was the thinnest possible. We paid $200 each for them. Months later we visited them and when wine was presented at dinner I asked them to use the Wedding glasses. In an off hand manner she told me that they shattered in the dishwasher. Dishwasher! Unbelievable.

"How many products around us are worse than they have to be." Bought a new Vacuum Cleaner the other day after the last one died from barely using it 2 years and it immediately started sucking itself straight to the ground, no matter what setting you'd put it in. I eventually put some fabric on it to be able to actually suck up dust and crumbs instead of kicking them around because the thing is glued too tight to the ground. A day later my electric grill died after just 5 years of being used. Planned Obsolescence is a pain in the ass.

As someone working in the glass industry trying to improve and test the strength of different glasses (especially display glasses), I must say that you did a fantastic job of explaining the underlying theoretical concepts of glass strength, chemical toughening and the typical processes during glass fracture. Glass is such an interesting and durable material and the fracture of glasses is such an interesting topic, I love that you were able to so wonderfully and shortly explain it to a broader community.

Irony: Apple relying on a company that rejects planned obsolescence.

3:44 yep that's definitely some authentic historical footage yes sir

"it's too long lasting" something that only is a valid point under consumer capitalism

Interesting last question. Sometimes it makes me mad how the world is driven by money so badly that customers lack products which would be glorious... 😢

A text book example how the free market and capitalism don't always evolve good products for the consumers.

Necessary reminder that planned obsolescence (or rather, casual disregard for longevity) causes the most of solid pollution, drains a huge percentage of used energy and causes the populace to stay poor all in one move.

My grandma from berlin still has one of these! Used it many times, never knew there was such a story behind it, thank you!

The man that got his beer served in a paper cup was actually the minister for glass and ceramics in the DDR

These would have ended the entire movie trope of dropping a glass in surprise.

I gotta like your insight in the GDR. The way you pointed the problem in the material world instead of the "haha commie bad" is really appreciated. Answering the last question: Almost all. From plastic that has a one use, one life cycle, to the 5 year life cycle cars, we could make things a lot better, or even the life cycle if the plot farms themselves. Capitalism won't end it until it is really over, that meaning, until the extintion of human itself, that is why it must be replaced, as almost any cost of the hardships of the chage would pale in comparasion to continuing the everhungry capital accumulation. I, as a Computers Systems Engineer, would even point the shortened life cycle software, as Flash Player was never natutrally replaced, the end of life caused a crisis in many web pages. Replacement is natural, what is not natural is deeming any piece of software as obsolete by solely its time. It would be no problem with today's production to turn the wheel towards everlasting products, from better ways to preserve wood to improve steel oxidation. The problem is, and will remain being, the nature of the System. But it is no longer an economic problem. It is a problem in all sectors: ecology, econony, politics, social, morality, knowledge, phylosophy, culture... Just to finish. In a report I did for school some time ago, I proved that the simple change/return from plastic to glass in the bottled drinks would solve most of the street polution. And therefore the problem is in the hands of the production, not on the consumer, who only would want to drink the sugar and water, no matter the material bottle.

I was using my mother's Corning glassware to measure oil for my car for years until she found out... So I bought my own and I dropped it the other day in the driveway and my heart stopped as I imagined this thing breaking into a million little pieces... But it just bounced off the ground making a cool reverberation sound and was completely fine... Now I realize why my mother is glassware has survived 30 some odd years.... I keep my measuring cup on a shelf precariously in my garage I have a feeling it'll be with me for a long time

Our World is stuffed when a product that would save the world millions of dollars is seen as too good. Planned obsolescence is destroying our world. Love your work Fern

5:33 "they are zipping along the autobahn" love how you included footage showing volkswagon cars overheated on the side of the road

I never could have guessed that this video would end with Corning Gorilla glass.

Actually NUDE Glass (yes it's the name of the company) will start selling unbreakable glassware this year, for example wine glasses. They presented it last year and also this year at different fairs.

Found this channel only like a month ago but always instantly watch there new videos they are just too good

Maybe two weeks after release is a bit too late for this comment, but Technology Connections made a great video about the durability of lightbulbs and why the agreement to limit their lifespan was actually a pretty consumer friendly idea. The problem with those "infinite bulbs" is that they achieve their lifespan by being comparatively dim. By agreeing to limit their products lifespan these companies on one hand secured their existence in the future, but on the other hand also ensured that customers wouldn't just buy continuously dimmer bulbs with the premise of a seemingly infinite lifespan.

Super strong Communist Glass? Could it be... Guerilla Glass?

remember to hydrate

Considering the amount of micro plastics that are polluting our environment, these glasses could be a very important solution.

When the emperor Tiberius was visited by an alchemist claiming to have created unbreakable glass, he asked him "Are you the only who knows of this invention?". "Yes." said the alchemist before being executed, for all glassworker livelihoods were at stake.

I love not only your educational documentary but also how you edited your graphics with unique detail and effort.

Like many things, there's more to the story of the lightbulb cartel than people think when they first hear about it. The centennial bulb in that one firehouse is an excellent example of the problem too. If you ever get the chance to see it, keep in mind that it's a 60 watt bulb. It draws 60 watts, but only puts out as much light as a normal 4 watt bulb. Why? Making an incandescent bulb that lasts a century isn't actually difficult, that's why people have known how for so long. Just make the filament thicker. Not only does that make the filament more durable, but it makes the filament stay cooler because there's less resistance, and that also makes it last longer. But that's a problem because being hot is how incandescent bulbs make light. So you've made a longer-lasting bulb, sure, but now you need twice as many of them to light the same room. Which means you need twice as much electricity to power them. Let's say you live somewhere that has electricty at 20c/kwh. Let's also say you have two bulbs to choose from, a 200w bulb that lasts 1000 hours, or a 400w bulb that lasts _forever._ Both bulbs make the same amount of light, both bulbs cost $5 to purchase. The 200w bulb that lasts 1000 hours will use 0.2 x 1000 = 200 kwh over that thousand hours. At 20c/kwh, that's $40 worth of electricity. Add the $5 cost of the bulb, and you're paying $45 per thousand hours of light. The 400w bulb will use 400kwh per thousand hours of runtime, costing $80 in electricity. Even if we _don't_ include the cost of the bulb, you're still spending $80 per thousand hours of light. The bulb that lasts forever costs _more,_ even if you don't pay more for it. That's what was happening, lightbulb makers were advertising bulbs that lasted longer and longer, and they _did_ last longer, but people's electricity bills were going up and they were complaining to the power companies. "I haven't changed anything and my electricity bill doubled! What the hell!?" It was also putting a strain on the electrical grid of the time, which was costing the electrical utilities more money in maintenance. So the electricity utilities told the lightbulb makers to _Knock that off!_ Turns out, you need electricity to power lightbulb factories, so they listened. They set the 1000 hour limit, and switched to competing on price, light quality, decorative bulb shapes, etc... Planned obsolescence is a terrible thing, and it's all too common in this day and age, but the 1000 hour limit of the incandescent lightbulb just isn't a good example of it.

maybe they should have gone directly with the product to the customers instead of the suppliers. buyer and supplier have different interests it really broke my heart when you mentioned how much better off everyone would be if the interest wasn't just money

Now you know why technology progresses soo slowly.

so it failed basically because of capitalism

SuperFirm SuperFern

"Glass is glass and glass breaks" - JerryRigEverything

This is THE example I always use when people say that capitalism and consumerism are good. They are not, we spent thousands of years perfecting our crafts just for some corpo suits to throw it all out of the window with their planned obsolescence. I still hope one day people will see that stuff like this is not politics, it's just corporations abusing consumers.

In the case of lightbulbs, the problem with the "unbreakable bulbs" was energy efficiency. They used more power to produce less light, and so much so the consumer would save money just buying the 1000 hour ones and replacing them when broken.

And still, there is a crack in my "Gorilla Glass" smartphone screen 😤

But let’s just keep this in theory… if they made the best product of glass to ever exist, their business might not last for a thousand years, but if the whole world buys and owns their products eventually, they would have made enough money to live for a thousand years😂

dude, nine years of waiting time for a "trabbi" is quite an understatement, usually, you could almost double that...

The good news is: The patent on Superfest has expired. Anyone who wants can try it again.

Small correction for the information in the video at 13:05 There is a trade-of in the making of old tungsten filament light blubs Basically you can make a dimm bulb that lasts long or a bright bulb that needs charging often Making a bulb costs cents so consumers and manufacturers chose brightness over longevity Planed obsolescence is a thing that I also hate but this is not necessary the case here But now we are blessed with LEDs We can thank for that the person that invented the blue LED: there is a video about that Without him there would be no white light from LEDs

The sales rep story reminds me way too much of the myth people keep repeating about the space pen: "the US spent billions on designing a zero-G pen while the clever soviets just used a pencil!!!11" while in reality there were _very_ good reasons not to use a pencil in a space craft.

DUDE.... just found your channel and watched 4 video's in a row. YOU ROCK! Thanks for feeding my curiosity and YT addiction :)) PS : due to your genius incorporation of sponsoring you are the first to make me register (at Brilliant). Wishing you all the best!

regarding the lightbulb cartels story the planned obsolescence of 1000 hours was not created with the purpose of selling more lightbulbs. It was done because shorter life bulbs work at a higher temperature which wears them out faster which has the advantages of a whiter brighter light and better efficiency. Older lights which used carbon filaments vs the thin tungsten used in later ones could last much longer but at the expense of a dimmer orange light that consumed a lot more power. Power companies also backed the lightbulb manufacturers as a more efficient lightbulb meant they could sell to more homes with the same amount of power generation capacity.

Ngl, the weird AI upscaling sheen on the black and white footage is really distracting, especially where it tries to incorrectly make out small low-res details. Is that how the Pathé footage looked originally?

Light bulbs with thinner filaments not just brake earlier, they're also more energy efficient. With modern LEDs it's usually different. There are for example the Dubai Lamps which are way more efficient and also last longer. But most manufacturers sell the cheaper to produce less efficient lamps which don't last that long.

Superfest was never going to sell, just as Chemcor (the chemically strengthened glass Corning developed in the 1960s never gained big sales) until there was a demand for it. Chemcor was further developed into Gorilla Glass by Corning, and is now in pretty much every smartphone, tablet and other screened handheld devices on the market. Superfest was only ahead of its time because Corning didn't try to sell Chemcor glass for drink ware. Chemcor was marketed to the auto industry, prisons and any other place that may have need for "tough" glass. Both Chemcor and Superfest suffered from the same issue, a product that no one was overly interested in, because they didn't serve any purpose at the time. There was plenty of interest in both glasses, but both glasses were far more expensive than standard soda lime glass to the point it was still cheaper to buy several sets of standard glasses or windows than buy a single set of Superfest or Chemcor glasses or windows.

"they tasked scientists to improve glass" After that i was waiting for a: "soon after, they introduced glass two" Btw this is what corning does nowdays, and why we can have glass smartphone screens

Planned obsolescence is one of the biggest things holding our species as a whole back

Never would've i thought I'll watch a 15 minute video on a such mundane object like glass in one go like it's nothing. These videos are extremely captivating, keep the good work !

You just don't know my mom. She broke plenty of hardened, nearly unbrekeable glasses over her lifetime, and the process, of course, is still going.

The reason we all aren't using it is because it's simply a bad product for consumer glassware. The wholesalers were right. I don't want one. You shouldn't want one. People don't break glasses very often to make the cost worth it, and lightweight glass feels cheap and unsatisfying. It's just the same as having a plastic sippy cup. Do you have plastic sippy cups for all your drinking vessels and for guests? No you don't. Why not? They're cheap and indestructible!! It's the perfect cup!! (No it's not). There is no conspiracy. People just like glass, they like heft, and they like saving money if they can take care of their stuff and get away with saving it.

This must be what nuka cola bottles are made out of in fallout

Funfact: in the DDR (GDR) they build extreme high quality tools and unbreakable kitchen divices. Even if they break, they repair things instead of throwing them away. Not everything was bad in the DDR.

Lightbulbs that last longer isn't a capatalist monolopoly problem, it was an engineering problem. Technology Connections has a video about that.

The thing that made west Germany advance more quickly than the east is the west had the USA propping up the industry while the soviet union was tasked with rebuilding the east on top of rebuilding themselves

So in a society where profit margin is not a concern products are possible that are much more durable? crazy.

That last part with Apple is hilarious considering the stupid VR headset uses the most shatterable glass on the front-face -- the most likely place you'll put down the headset; I've seen the teardowns and I was just laughing my ass off.

I'm in Armenia right now. The other day in a kitchen, an old man attempted to pull a glass cup from the cupboard, it fell onto the floor and bounced around for a few seconds. He cracked the joke that it didn't shatter because it's Soviet.

The lightbulbs are a bad example for what you try to show there. There actually ARE lightbulbs lasting very very long, but they are either very dim or need way more power for the same brightness. Aside from that, my mom still has superfest glassware. It just won't break even though she tries hard! 😉

7:20 I have never had "glass" explained to me in such a simple and understandable way, that, honestly, I understand glass so much more because of that explanation, so thank you for that.

Capitalist “innovation” is primarily if not entirely concerned with ensuring consumers keep consuming

The whole light bulb thing is a bit inaccurate. Long lasting light bulbs lasts long because they are not very bright. LEDs lasts long too, and are sold in droves.

My sledgehammer disagrees alone my hydraulic press. They want to play

In bahrain there was a shop that tried to sell me unbreakable glass cups… lady threw the cup at the ground and it bounced as a demo… I had a damn panic attack

WOW. Coming from your two german channels over to this one, I really have to admit this video is amazing. Nearly accent-free english mixed with that astonishing video quality is just staggering. Allthough I knew about the Superfest glass and the wold-destroying concept of planned obsolescence it was still entertaining and informative. Thank you for this great video and the even better message in the end. Keep up the great work :)

>has the same fridge his grandparents bought in the early 60's >has never once quit working or needed repair/maintenance >sibling has bought six fridges in the last ten years >owns a chainsaw built in the 1930's >hasn't quit working, while numerous "better" replacements have over the decades >owns an Apple Macintosh II that works just fine more than 30 years after it was built >every modern computer burns out after 5 years at most >dad still drives the same 1960's Ford Falcon he bought in high school, without changing a single part >own a car that needs several thousand dollars in repairs every three years despite being brand new and under warranty For the first time, I think communists MIGHT have had a point. Might.

The author makes no mention of what happens when the NEARLY unbreakable glass actually does break. I guess HE will never know the reason this glass never took off, while the rest of us completely understand. 👍

Look up the movie "The Man in the White Suit", with Alec Guinnes. It's about a inventor who makes a new fabric that is tearproof and will never get dirty. First all the people are amazed by it till they realize all the downsides. The manufacterer will sell it only once to a customer because it will never break. The cleaning industry will go under because all clothes made from it will never get dirty. Ect. I never realized that it realy happend. Not with clothes but with glas. Thank you fern.

Also this story reminds me of the lesser known Roman myth of flexible glas, that did not break and only deformed. The inventor was executed since it risked gold and silver as the currency of rome and instead would use that glas / risk glas production of rome. Weird story, thought it fit into this discussion

Even replacement parts are hit and miss nowadays because it's obvious it was designed to have shorter lifespans. I end up buying several sets of the same replacement parts for critical equipment because the original 60's versions that lasted until the early 00's finally broke, and the replacement parts barely last a year.

The integration for that Shopify ad was smooth af. Had no idea I was watching an ad lol

And I thought the reason why we dont have it these days is something like lead. No, it was just a bad sales person and planned obsolescence. He should have went directly to bars and restaurants, to the local fetes and their organizers and to the private person hat home.

13:15 This is because they didn’t come up with a magical bulb that lasts forever, there’s a direct relationship between the brightness of the bulb and how long it will last. The issue was some manufacturers were selling and advertising bulbs with extreme lifetimes, but they were unusably dim.

Superfest must be better than Gorilla Glass as nearly everyone has more than once cracked their smartphone glass.

not so unbreakable, people break phone screens all the time now

2:00 Ich bin schockiert, ein video welches die materiellen Bedingungen der DDR neutral und faktenbasiert darstellt und nicht einfach ideologisch schlecht redet.

The video quality and content is so amazing. Found your channel a couple of months back and now I eagerly wait for your videos to drop. Keep bringing such great content.

More heartbreaking than the question of "how many products around us are worse than they have to be?" is the question of "why we as a human race are so much worse than we can actually be?" In another parallel universe, an entire race of beings more enlightened than us are enjoying drinks from unbreakable glassware now.

For years now I'm calling for glass to come back because it tears my heart to see how much plastic we are throwing away for nothing. Once you start separating waste you cannot be untouched by sheer volume of plastic that we dispose off daily for single use. Probably half of that amount could be replaced with glassware only if we'd call for it. And industry wouldn't die - nobody said this glass is unbreakable infinitely - it's just 15 times stronger and could be recycled over and over again. So, industry would still earn, just the expenses would need adjustment. But they cancelled it. It's time to punish them. I'm happy to live in Europe and that we started to promote repairing again.

13:08 well there's a little more to that. You can watch the video about that topic from Technology Connections. It's called "Longer-lasting light bulbs: it was complicated". TLDR: It was cheaper for the consumer and more profitable for the manufacturer because these lightbulbs used less energy for the same amount of light. So it was cheaper to buy a new one every few years than to pay for the extra power consumption.

Really interesting story. I heard that after the wall went down, they actually tried to find a buyer for the company, and thus stil kept the company running for years, sort of. If I recall right, the glass mixture they used had to be kept molten at all costs before it was brought into its final shape and then being tampered. So they had that company having large containers filled with that hot molten glass mixture for years, because they could not let it get hard under any circumstances, otherwise it would be unuseable forever. At least that is how I recall that article I read.

Funnily enough superfest's failure in the west has very little to do with planned obsolescence. It's fundamentally poor marketing and a lack of understanding of the market. Selling to glass distributors, which make money of selling glassware both directly and indirectly (due to updated marketing) doesn't make much logical sense unless you attempt to avoid trying to do the much harder work. They needed to set up their own distributors and sell directly to bar and restaurant owners, people that rely on making money from glasses indirectly. But that also means a LOT more work than selling to one or two distributors. It also doesn't help that a few western brands of hard to break glass existed for decades but all suffer from being more expensive (including Superfest), but they do still sell though not in glasses but mainly in cookware (like measuring cups, baking trays, etc.)

Take a drink every time "glass" is said. Also we seriously need to return to this superfest, screw the manifacturers.

“Tady přestává veškerá legrace” - Pelíšky

technology connections did a video on the everlasting lightbulb thing - essentially brightness and lifespan are negatively correlated in incandescents, so if you want to see then you have to put up with the 1000 hours limit

You asked: How many products are worse than they need to be in order to sell more? My answer to your question is: How many products are there? When you get that answer, you will answer your question. One good example of this is Air-conditions in homes. They come with a warranty but the same manufacturers know how to make the defects to that they will wear out just after the warranty expires. Then the government in an effort to ((save the planet)) raises prices on the gas that they use. You talked about lightbulbs. What is the one thing that always fails in a lightbulb? The filament. Too unstable to last. Yet we can't find a way to make one that last longer and accept it. There is simply too much motivation to make things that break and not enough to make quality.

I think that a big part of the problem is that the information available to the buyer is incomplete. Logically, if a glass will last many times longer than an ordinary glass, I ought to willing to pay several times more for it (depending on interest rates). But when I consider buying a new glass, I don't know how long it will last. Maybe it was invented last year, and the increased lifespan is still theoretical. Suppose an ordinary glass costs 5 marks and lasts 1 year, and the superfest glass will last 50. If I'll pay only twice the normal price for it, and then not buy any replacements for decades, the manufacturer will go bust. If the manufacturer asks 100 marks for it, I won't buy it, since I don't know how long it will last. If I buy some at 10 marks, and they last for decades, I (or my heirs) will look to buy more, even at 100 marks, but it's too late, the manufacturer went bankrupt decades ago. So the old business model won't work. But a new one might...