Glass has been around as long as the earth, and can be found occuring naturally around volcanoes, where certain types of rock are heated to extreme temperatures and almost melted, and then cooled rapidly.
The first recorded mention of glass is by the ancient Roman historian, Pliny, in 5000 B.C.. He tells how some merchants, after landing in Syria, rested cooking pots on blocks of nitrate placed by their fire. With the intense heat of the fire, the blocks eventually melted and mixed with the sand of the beach to form an opaque liquid. Glass.
Since then, glass has been an important medium all over the world and still is today.
Glass has been used as an artistic and functional material in the UK for many centuries. The most common use of glass being found in the stained and leaded glass windows of religious buildings around the country. However, glass is also used for jewellery, drinking and eating vessels, windows and art, to name a few.
Do you know when glass was first discovered? Find out here >
John has recently completed and installed a leaded glass window, with a balloon pattern, in Cinderford.
