Anthem of Joy in Glass (1977 - 1977) by Liskova, Vera (Czech, 1924-1985), ArtistCorning Museum of Glass
For 3500 years, we have shaped, pressed, and molded glass. Common glass is known as “soda lime” glass after two of its basic ingredients: soda—found in soda ash or washing soda—and lime—found in calcium carbonate or limestone.
Glassmakers have long experimented with recipes and processes to improve and adapt this basic formula. The rise of modern chemistry gave birth to atomic theory and to the discovery of patterns describing the chemical properties of elements which are summarized in the Periodic Table. The development of many new glass formulas followed.
The exact date and location of the invention of glass remains unknown, however, since its discovery, the material of glass has led to numerous innovations in science, technology, and art.
The need for a material arises
In the 1800s, railroads and ships transported people and goods across the vast distances of North America. Signal lanterns became an essential part of transportation safety. Extreme temperatures frequently caused lanterns to break, resulting in accidents and deaths.
Corning Little Joe Tube Tower - Tin Pan Time Machine Project (2016) by The Corning Museum of GlassCorning Museum of Glass
German glassmaker Otto Schott (1851-1935) discovered that adding boron produced a glass resistant to thermal expansion, and developed the first long lasting, accurate thermometer. For decades, Corning Glass Works produced boron-added thermometers using an ingenious updraw method borrowed from England by Arthur Houghton, grandson of Corning Glass Works founder.
Pyrex
The original Pyrex glass is a borosilicate glass. The main ingredients are silicon, sodium, aluminum, and boron, which is found in the laundry detergent Borax. Borosilicate glass expands and contracts less than soda lime glass when heated and cooled, making it less likely to break as it heats up quickly in an oven or on a Bunsen burner in a lab, or as it cools down on a countertop.
In Corning, NY, scientists Eugene Sullivan (1872-1962) and William Taylor (1886-1958) developed a different boron-added formula. This borosilicate glass, called Nonex for “non-expansion” glass, performed well as railroad lenses.
Many borosilicate glass objects were soon made for use in the home and in the laboratory.
In 1913, Corning Glass Works engineer Jessie Littleton (1888-1966) searched for a new use for Nonex, the non-expansion glass used for railroad signal lanterns and battery jars. Frustrated that her new ceramic casserole dish had broken in the oven, Jessie’s wife Bessie (1886-1966) wondered if Nonex glass might work for baking.
Pyrex Battery Jar (1950/1970) by Corning Glass Works, ManufacturerCorning Museum of Glass
Using a sawed-off battery jar, similar to this one, Bessie successfully made an evenly baked sponge cake, which Jessie shared with his co-workers the next day.
Bessie Littleton’s kitchen experiment led to another variation in the recipe for non-expansion glass. The new glass became known as Pyrex, and was shaped into glass baking dishes.
An effective marketing campaign made Pyrex a household brand. By 1919, over 4 million Pyrex dishes in about 100 shapes and sizes filled American kitchens.
Thermometers
In the 1920s, more and more American homes also included an automobile. Thermometers mounted on the radiator caps alerted drivers if their motor was getting overheated. The thermometers were made with borosilicate glass to prevent breakage from changing temperatures.
The thermometer also became part of the modern household first aid kit. Monitoring the family’s personal health safely and accurately became possible with a borosilicate glass thermometer that wouldn’t easily break.
Design
A test kitchen at Corning, run by Lucy Maltby, a woman with a degree from the newly minted field of home economics, tried out new products, evaluating their design, reviewing customer feedback, and suggesting future innovation. Borosilicate saucepans, coffee percolators, and measuring cups emerged from these efforts.
Continued efforts at innovation led to changes to the shape of the cup, including its handle.
Further testing and user feedback produced a radical new design: a handle attached only at the top, allowing the measuring cups to stack.
Labware
Pyrex became the “go to” glass for labware and chemical processing. Its extraordinary durability allowed engineers to design efficient processes with minimal downtime.
Borosilicate laboratory glassware like Pyrex (or Duran in Europe) withstands large temperature fluctuations without breaking. It is more chemically resistant than soda lime glass, making it ideal for a wide variety of chemical and other uses.
The 200-inch Disk
Borosilicate glass was perfect for an out of this world object: the largest telescope ever made!
This 20-ton, 200-inch (5-meter) disk is one of the world's largest pieces of cast glass. It was to serve as the gigantic mirror for the Hale telescope.
In 1934, the first attempt to make the mirror failed when the casting mold broke, but the second attempt succeeded, inspiring future engineers and artists.
Two crews spent 6 hours pouring over 100 ladles of hot glass into the improved mold. After 10 months of cooling in an annealing oven, the disk was ready.
The disk traveled to California on a whistlestop tour. After arriving at Mt. Palomar, the surface was ground into shape, polished, and coated with aluminum.
The finished mirror became a key part of the most powerful telescope yet.
Flameworking with borosilicate glass
Although artists have used flameworking (or lampworking) for centuries, they failed to gain much traction in in the fine arts until the properties of borosilicate glass allowed them to create larger-scale and more complex works. Most glasses used by artists must be kept at uniform temperatures, or they will crack and break. This limits the scale and complexity of a sculpture. Borosilicate glass tolerates temperature differences more readily than other art glasses, enabling an artist to connect multiple components into large compositional works.
The individually made pieces in this scene can be very detailed, as in the case of Marie Antoinette. Its small scale reflects the availability only of soft glass that inhibits larger productions.
Until the invention of borosilicates, flameworkers were restricted to using soft, soda-lime glasses. Their art and craftsmanship reached a high point in the work of Rudolph (1822-1895) and Leopold (1857-1839) Blaschka.
Contemporary Art made with borosilicate glass
With a hand torch from the inside out, Susan Plum (1944-) used borosilicate glass to weave this complex sculpture inspired by Mayan cosmological traditions. Softer glasses would simply fall apart.
In the late 1960s, Věra Lišková was one of the first artists to use borosilicate glass to create larger-scale sculpture. Inspired by the form of musical notes, the sculpture communicates the emotion and energy of harmonious sound.
Jill Reynolds (1955-) uses borosilicate glass because it is more amenable than most other glasses to being interconnected.The letters, made of small glass rods, and larger blown glass tubes filled with a blood-like red liquid, create a form resembling the models of proteins created during DNA replication.
Luke Jerram (1974-) explores the tension between the beauty of his glass sculptures, the deadly viruses that they represent, and the global impact caused by these diseases. Borosilicate glass is the ideal choice for such sculptures as its resistance to thermal shock more readily allows for such complex constructions.
Ginny Ruffner (1952-) adapted her knowledge of harder, borosilicate glasses, commonly used in scientific glassmaking, to art. Its tolerance for extreme temperature variance enabled Ruffner to create larger compositional sculptures in which many separate elements can be interconnected.
To give the impression of sound waves flowing through the glass, the artists have taken advantage of the unique ability of borosilicate to be heated and manipulated in one local area while the rest of the object can be left rigid at much cooler temperatures. Initially formed into clean, symmetrical vessels, the objects in this series were distorted by selectively heating and softening certain areas to achieve the impression of movement.
Why Boron?
Scientists have long tried to understand why adding boron makes glasses that expand and contract less under changing temperatures than the more common soda lime glass of bottles, jars, and windows. Only in the last few years has an answer emerged. In soda lime glass, sodium atoms soften the glass, making it easier to shape. But sodium also makes glass expand when it heats up. When a material gets hot, its atoms vibrate and separate more, expanding the object. Sodium atoms vibrate more than most other atoms in glass, including boron. In borosilicate glass, most of the softening is done by the added boron atoms, so less sodium is needed. As a result, borosilicate glass expands only ⅓ as much as soda lime glass.
Borosilicate Glass Exhibition Team:
Marv Bolt, Curator of Science and Technology
Jane Cook, Chief Scientist
Jim Galbraith, Chief Librarian
Eric Goldschmidt, Flameworking and Properties of Glass Supervisor
Mandy Kritzeck, Digital Media Producer/Project Manager
Richard Urban, Digital Asset Manager and Strategist
Kris Wetterlund, Director of Education and Interpretation
Kathryn Wieczorek, Science Educator
