@@Hamun002 actually the guy mentioned that they used to take a big bubble of glass, cut it in half and try to make as flat as possible but it often did not become flat.
I am in the glass industry and just visited the Guardian plant yesterday. It was the hottest I have ever been, but this is pretty much exactly the same!!! It was AMAZING! My favorite was seeing the patterns being stamped into the glass to make different textures
@@123prova Materials engineering student here: yes, in some facilities they blow air by the outside of the furnace to absorb any heat coming off, and then pump that back into the main heating line. They can also sometimes recycle heat from the toxic flue gases from the combustion process as well. Hope this answers your question.
@@123prova yes even in artisan shops we do so. its called a recuperative combustion system. both hot air and unburnt fuels are piped back into the comnbustion streams.
@@Aygeu yup, if youre really slick you can put in filtration systems along that recuperation circuit too. ive built about fifteen furnaces, recuperation is huge money savings. wont ever do one without it again.
As a glass blower I find the float glass method awesome to see every time. As a glass blower that learned the craft in Harrisburg very near Carlisle I'm not surprised it's there.
You know you went so DEEEEEPPP into RU-vid that by 2am you just clicked away video by video and ended you up on how glass is made. But I feel like I can go deeper by 5 am.
Very informative and well narrated, there is a lot more to making quality glass than one would reason. The amount of electricity used to get the Sand Mixture to a molten stage has to be very high. It is also impressive to see the size of the factory that produces the window glass it had to be a work and progress building knowledge in each generation until a process was finally perfected. This is probably true with just about any tool, appliance machine or technology that we use today.
Getting the damned bubbles out has to be the main thing. I had a truck some years ago that had thousands of little micro-bubbles in the factory windshield. You couldn't see them except when bright sunlight was at the right angle. I ended up getting a rock chip that spread across the whole thing, so that bubbly windshield was replaced for a better one. I've also seen windows in very old houses that have a lot of bigger bubbles and even waves in them, like the bubbles in beer or champagne, but the bubbles were all inside the pane and the surface of the glass was smooth. Weird. The longer I live, the more I realize how much I don't know, and how much I rely on the knowledge of others for even the most everyday things in life. Great video.
5:26 - it's not explained, but when that guy drops the sheet, it's onto an airbed. That black surface has air pushing through it to cushion the glass as it drops.
proper glass is made from quartz powder though ... this is sodium lime glass ... before this process it was lead glass ... before that it was silica glass ... and it is NEVER a solid ... it is a super fluid ... yes it holds it's shape sort of ... but it never actually hardens fully and is always moving ... the older the glass is the easier it is to see that this is the case ... even our modern window glass after 50 years will show that the bottom of the pane is actually thicker than the top of the pane ... becuase it sags down with gravity ... yes it is only a milimeter or so .in that time ... but it still means it is NOT a solid ...
@@0623kaboom "The question "Is glass solid or liquid?" has no clear answer. In terms of molecular dynamics and thermodynamics, it is possible to justify various different views that it is a highly viscous liquid, an amorphous solid, or simply that glass is another state of matter that is neither liquid nor solid. The difference is semantic. Even in terms of its material properties, we can do little better. No clear definition exists of the distinction between solids and highly viscous liquids. All such phases or states of matter are idealisations of real material properties. Nevertheless, from a more commonsense point of view, glass should be considered a solid since it is rigid according to everyday experience. The use of the term "supercooled liquid" to describe glass still persists, but is considered by many to be an unfortunate misnomer that should be avoided. In any case, claims that glass panes in old windows have deformed due to glass flow have never been substantiated. Examples of Roman glassware and calculations based on measurements of glass visco-properties indicate that these claims cannot be true. The observed features are more easily explained as a result of the imperfect methods used to make glass window panes before the float glass process was invented." The Physics and Relativity FAQ Updated by Dan Watts, 2021. Original by Philip Gibbs, 1996
@@0623kaboom Quartz is quite literally silica. Modern soda lime glasses are still silica based, and the main function of the additives (soda and lime) are to lower the melting point and to increase malleability (though the lime also helps stabilize it chemically). The other commenter is also right that glass is not a liquid and does not act like one. However, the reason glass panels were thicker at the bottom is because making perfect sheets of glass was damn near impossible, and it's just easier to install the thicker side down rather than up.
if you tried to use beach sand youd end up with greenish blue bubbly garbage. what we use is elementally pure silica. what you see in beach sand is random trash.
This is so awesome!!! Thanks for sharing. I was just washing dishes and thought... How the heck is glass made😂😂😂So I guess its safe to say....My dirty dishes brought me here😄😄😄
I worked a few years ago at PPG doing firebrick work. Mainly in the regenerators. The place is absolutely massive, and walking the roller line takes a while!
I worked for a company (over 40 years ago) that made double pane glass windows for office buildings, skyscrapers, etc. We had to handle these large panes of glass that you see in the video here but we weren't given any protective clothing to wear. And yes, I did slice my fingers open one day and had to get stitches. I still remember the owner of that company telling me "You're lucky to have this job". Yup.
15ys as a qualified Glazier, making and fitting glass doors and windows, when in the trade every glazier and labour who works with glass will have a scar from glass cuts
@@Sashsqash1 We're all human, and once in a while, things happen no matter how careful one tries to be. Ask any sheet metal guy, they all have the scars too. The "HVAC band-aid" is a paper towel and some electrical tape.
I’m so happy you guys took the time to research such an exciting topic welcome to the intellectual questioning stage at this stage you must be grateful for life and thank god everyday you are all very loved by god himself in Jesus name Amen
Well, they didn't come up all at once, for example; someone may come up with something very simple that has advantages and disadvantages, and after a while people try to improve it, and after that there may be some new disadvantages, and they try to improve it again. The cycle goes until they end up with something so advanced that u think "how did they even come up with this?"
Just look at smartphones, if someone sees them for the first time, it can be mind-blowing to them to think how someone can come up with something like that, but if u know how it all begun and how cellphones were the last couple of decades it can be different.
I know, right? Take cheese, for instance. Have you ever thought about the thought process that must have been behind that? "Look, I'm not saying I don't like milk. I like milk; I really do. All I'm saying is it would be nice if it occasionally came in the form of a large, yellow brick."
I work at a glass factory land that's literally how it can happen. You can try tossing it but it shatters and you could be cut or get into your eyes even with PPE
This is so amazing to me. One of those things that we use every day but hardly ever think about. Of course, I have more questions. The sand melts at such a high temperature. But what kind of metal is the machinery made of that can withstand that high temperature without melting itself? And how do you make the machinery for something that has the highest melting point?
The furnace is actually made from several layers of interlocking ceramic blocks up to 3 feet thick. The tin bath is lined with block and carbon. The machines inside that pull the glass through the tin bath called top roll machines are water cooled along with cameras inside so operators can see what is going on. Here is a better video of the process. This is a video made at the plant I work at. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qxz9WPZr27U.html
@@punknhead23 cool! It looks like ceramic and tin can take a lot of heat. Interesting to see the process. Something we use every day, but rarely think about how it’s made.
@@punknhead23 Yes and another tidbit for those not in the glass business, is that the tanks or furnace, is never shut down. It runs 24/7, 365 days a year. Only time they are shut down is for a rebuild. Most run for years on end always making glass. If the glass is not needed then it is added back to the mix as cullet.
Sand and glass are not the same as each other. Sand is mostly small crystals of quartz (Silicon dioxide.) glass is made of a mixture of silicon dioxide, calcium silicate, sodium silicate and a number of other compounds of silicon, calcium and sodium plus a number of impurities. Glass is not crystalline (Despite the name "Glass Crystal" for certain types of high-quality glass.) but is more like a super-cooled fluid. I.e. the atoms in it are not in ordered rows as the atoms in a crystal are.
nope that is called sodium lime glass ... Glass is actually made from quartz powder ... they even have silica glass and lead glass ... but they are all derivatives of actual glass .. what americans call glass is NOT actually glass by proper name ... just like cello tape and scotch tape are NOT the same thing ... but are similar ... celo tape is the actual name of clear tape ... scotch tape is the most common NAME BRAND ... same idea as Kleenex and Facial tissue ...
Extreme heat melt it naturally...so I’m guessing...furnace technology. Which would be Bronze Age or older were this might be accomplished. But many ores melt the same way....and make for colored glass. Which was probably first. Natural quartz is transparent and is the same. Indeed diamonds are carbon...smelted under extreme pressure. Clear...however other elements change the color.
After the first New Mexico atom bomb..,the desert floor had sheets of light green.......glass! Radioactive of course. Thicker as you approached the center. History!
Glass is a rigid material formed by heating a mixture of dry materials to a viscous state, then cooling the ingredients fast enough to prevent a regular crystalline structure. As the glass cools, the atoms become locked in a disordered state like a liquid before they can form into the perfect crystal arrangement of a solid. Being neither a liquid nor a solid, but sharing the qualities of both, glass is its own state of matter. I worked at a glass plant for 45 years and yes it's complicated to understand.
@@bconman that is true for Sodium Lime glass but not for actual glass ... which is quartz powder only ... we also call it crystal ... and it IS allowed to form into crystals ... in BOTH version but only very small crystals which allows light to pass through ... if cooled naturally it forms larger crystals and tends to block light and being able to see through it ... before sodium lime glass there was lead glass ... and silica glass .. which is green ... and no glass is a solid .... it is a superfluid ... it never stops moving ... it just moves very slowly ... take a 100 year old window and measure the top and the bottom and you will find a deviation ... measure modern glass after manufacture and it is even along its surface let it stand for 50 years and the top is thinner than the bottom ... sure it is very small in mircrons and millimeter range but it still has changed ...
I have the honour of knowing one of the eight man team that is responsible for continuous float glasses perfected process. I’ve had many conversations about everything we just watched and am in awe of the challenges they overcame and that all continuous glass uses there process.
Thank you for your comment. I worked at Ford Glass plant in Nashville and there was a situation where someone tried to steal the plans for the float glass process. Needless to say, the guy was caught at the plant but quite intriguing when the police showed up.
the pilkington process is available to all now(the molten tin and wheel machines,) I think, but there are different methods of forming it which are patented across the different companies
@@Heat3YT2 So one day after clubbing their girlfriends and having a quickie, they decided to take some silica, some lime and some bicarb and mix it all up and melt it. At 3,000. Despite the fact that the hottest a wood fire can get is around 500 degrees. And they just happened to have a couple of bags of the the stuff hanging around in the cave. Right next to the vat full of molten tin. Aha. Got it.
I've heard the story is they use to have these massive bonfires in Egypt and other countries for celebrations. And they noticed afterwards all the glass under where the fire was. And that provoked it
I feel like modern day humanity unknowingly underestimates and insults the intelligence, curiosity, and ingenuity of ancient humans. We are pretty much the same people but thrown into a different set of circumstances in regards to already established technology
Every 100 years aliens send someone down to progress our civilization.. We are a big experiment.. It makes just about much sense as believing in religion.
Where does all that sand come from, where do they get it from? Glass is everywhere and it’s been around for a very long time. How have we not used it all up by now? Very perplexing questions.
@@oo0Spyder0oo I’m sure they don’t harvest sand from beaches and that’s the only place I really see sand in abundance which is why I’m curious where they do get the sand from. Maybe they do use some beaches, I have no idea.
@@afterburner2869 clearly they don’t mine all the fucking beaches you don’t, I was explaining that it’s in abundance to the question that it’s been made for ages and why it hasn’t run out. The fact you can melt down sand on the beaches shows you how plentiful it is and an example of where you get it.
franlovesmusic It is not the regular sand that you scoop up at the beach. It is formed in specific geological process to be of commercial purity, and only a few places have it. The refining dust is very carcinogenic. Google silica sand mining wisconsin protest . Glass bottles are no less pollutant than plastics.
When Pilkington invented the float-glass process around the middle of the last century, the sheet was originally drawn across a narrow bed of mercury (later replaced by the less dangerous tin), but the company was still producing glass with the Libby-Owens technique, whereby the sheet of glass is drawn upwards continuously through a long ceramic nozzle floating on the surface of the molten glass in what was called a drawing bay. The continuous sheet was then bent over a roller, drawn across the narrow bed of mercury and finally cut off to the required length. The thickness of the glass depended on the drawing speed, with thicker glass being drawn more slowly. The advantage of float-glass is that both surfaces are flat and exactly parallel to each other, Before that, glass made with the Libby-Owens method (and before that with the Foucault method) only had a flat upper surface and the lower surface had to be polished in a further production step, which increased the price somewhat. MsG
zinc tin lead water ... depends on the end result ... even silver and gold will work ... the main criteria is that the melted silica does not combine with what it is being floated upon ..
not dumber less knowledgeable ... watch more of them and gain knowledge .. dumb is a state of knowing something about an thing and NOT using that knowledge .. while knowledge or lack of ... is NOT knowing and caring enough to learn about it ... HOW you put the knowledge to use is what creates wisdom ... which is the opposite of being dumb .
Silica sand is used. It is refined and put through many filters before it goes into the process. If something undesirable does not melt down in the process it will be detected with and inspections system during the scoring and braking out process and then discarded. You can see how pure it is in this video of the plant I work in. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qxz9WPZr27U.html
I wondered about this most of my life. Never once in bed!😁 I was told quite often that glass is made from sand and didn't doubt it so didn't question it. I would have had to use an encyclopedia with no videos. That's the way I had to do my homework if I bothered to do it at all. Now I know.
