Tiffany - A Glass Maestro

Louis Comfort Tiffany was born the son of a successful New York jeweler. An easy career path in the footsteps of his father did not appeal to him, so he studied art in New York and Paris. Upon his return from Paris, he continued painting but extended his artistic ability to include interior decorating. After decorating a suite of rooms in the White House, Tiffany’s designs were in great demand.

In 1875 he opened the Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists. He had over one hundred skilled artists that produced the lamps, windows, and tiles to Tiffany's design specifications. The demand for his glass products increased as demand for his design talents increased. 

                   

Louis C. Tiffany was an artist and innovator in working with glass. He developed new types of glass as well as new techniques in producing lamps, windows, and tiles. It was said that Tiffany's windows were meant to be looked at and not looked through. Tiffany also used ancient methods of making glass and adapted those methods to create his masterpieces in glass.

                                                                                                                                   

References

http://www.studiosoft.it/antiquetiffany.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Comfort_Tiffany

https://www.google.com/search?q=louis+c.+tiffany

Tuesday July 16

Eight o'clock came a bit earlier than many of us expected because of the interrupted sleep when the hotel fire alarm went off. But at 8:30 our intrepid gang set off for Paden City, West Virginia and Paul Wissmach Glass.

The Wissmach company began manufacturing glass in 1904 and quickly became known for the variety of colors of glass produced. They perfected the process of making colored, rolled glass. They established their business by producing wire glass, tubing for lighting, and stained glass.

Our next visit was to Marble King also in Paden City, WV. This company is the only marble manufacturer in the United States and produces over a million marbles a day. But marbles are used for more than just a playground game and have applications in the paint industry and in funerary crypts. Glass in its many forms and uses, like marbles, has put West Virginia on the map.

The last stop of the day was in the city of Moundsville and the Grave Creek Mound itself. The museum at the mound had a history of glass exhibit featuring the work of Ron Hinkle of Buckhannon, WV.

This day demonstrated that glass can be used in innovative ways and is one of our most versatile
 materials. Today we saw glass used as a simple playground toy and as fine art in the stained glass of Paul Wissmach and the creations of Ron Hinkle. However, for glass to continue to play a major role in West Virginia's economy, new applications and production methods are necessary.

Glass in Space - Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble SpaceTelescope is a highly successful NASA program that has delivered everything promised by its creators and more. The first reflecting telescope in space has been responsible for many spectacular discoveries that advanced scientist's knowledge of astronomy.

The telescope, launched in 1990, uses two mirrors to collect light that is then directed to various sensors and instruments that collect the information. Not long after the HST was operating, it was discovered that the primary mirror had a flaw and the images sent back were fuzzy, not sharp as expected. That meant that the main mission of getting sharp images, undistorted by Earth’s atmosphere, could not be completed.

The diagram above shows that the edges were four microns too flat. It was decided that the vision problem with the HST could be corrected with lenses that would function much like eyeglasses do with humans. So a shuttle mission was launched to capture the telescope and have astronauts place the corrective lenses in the proper positions. The lenses were actually small carefully designed mirrors that corrected the focal point of the primary mirror. The optical qualities of glass allowed the HST to first, be conceived, and then to correct a mistake that enabled it to fulfill its primary mission of producing sharp, undistorted images of objects deep  in space.

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

Hubble Space Telescope in Orbit

References
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/captions/hubble/hst01.htm

http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/nuts_.and._bolts/optics/optics2.php

http://history.nasa.gov/hubble/

https://www.google.com/search?q=Mirrors+in+HST&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=hffdUf63IonE4AOzkoD4Bw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1241&bih=584#facrc=_&imgdii=cDIzH4u144sqEM%3A%3BBbYpARS5Y-ta5M%3BcDIzH4u144sqEM%3A&imgrc=cDIzH4u144sqEM%3A%3BqhS9urbO9QpVaM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstatic.ddmcdn.com%252Fgif%252Fhubble-telescope-in-orbit.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.howstuffworks.com%252Fhubble2.htm%3B400%3B297

Mirrors for the Masses

Mirrors are common, ordinary glass devices that are used and taken for granted by most people in the world. A mirror, by definition, is an object that reflects light in a way that preserves the properties of the light in reflection after contact with the mirror. While mirrors are considered unremarkable today and taken for granted, that was not always the case.

 

Long regarded as enablers for Narcissistic, self-admiring people, mirrors were once available only to the very rich and to the nobility. The method for making plate glass mirrors was perfected on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy in the 16th century. The back was covered in mercury and produced a near perfect reflection. These mirrors were placed in rich, elegant frames and used to decorate the royal palaces of Europe.

The Venetian monopoly of the plate glass process lasted for about one hundred years. In an early case of industrial espionage, the secret process was stolen and plate glass mirrors were being produced on an industrial scale in London and Paris by the 17th century.  

Thanks to industrial spies in the 17th century, mirrors were made affordable for common people. Various other metals were later used for backing mirrors and made mirrors even less expensive. Now mirrors serve a multitude of purposes from store security, grooming aids, and interior design to capturing light in reflecting telescopes.

Hubble Space Telescope

  

Two Way Mirrors

!. How are mirrors used in high tech products.

2. How do you use mirrors daily.

3. How might we use mirrors in the future?

4. Why do some mirrors make you look fat? *

5. How do some mirrors make objects look far away?

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror

http://www.euroglas.com/en/euroglas.html

History of Glass to the Middle Ages

Glass has been used by man dating back to the Stone Age. The glass used by Stone Age people was obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. This glass was used for making weapons and tools for cutting and slicing. Some surgical instruments still use an obsidian blade because it still has a finer edge than any surgical stainless steel. Glass Timeline

Glass was first produced 2,000 years BC in what is now Iraq and Syria. Glass was produced in small quantities using molds and simple tools. Because it was so labor intensive, only very wealthy people could afford glass objects. The picture below shows an early sculpture made from glass in ancient Egypt around 2,000 BC. This sculpture was made of a pre-glass substance called faience. Most glass objects at this time were small and worn as jewelry like pendants. Glass was thought to have been a byproduct of slag from the production of metals.

The Romans were the first to use glass in architecture since clear glass has been excavated in Alexandria, Egypt, a Roman colony in 100 A.D. Clear glass was a major step in architecture because it allowed windows that would let light into buildings, but keep out everything else. Glass production spread all through the Mediterranean Sea and was soon a major trade item.

The glass industry was established in Venice around 1,000 A.D. and then spread around Europe. The Venetians, however, were the first to produce colored glass. Colored glass then was used to produce the beautiful stained glass windows seen in the cathedrals built during the Middle Ages.

Using Glass in Architecture

As everyone knows, glass is used extensively in architecture. It has been used traditionally in windows and doors to allow light in and people to look outside. As modern technology has altered some glass manufacturing methods and some formulas for glass, its use in architecture has changed as well. The example below is a modern use of glass in digital imaging as well as an older use as a facade on a building. Building facades and glass have been used by architects and builders for centuries: using glass in a digital facade is a modern use of both.

One of the more innovative glass structures is the Cutty Sark Museum in London, UK. Cutty Sark was a British-built clipper ship used in the tea trade. She held the speed record for traveling between India and England until steam ships replaced sailing ships. She was a favorite for building models in bottles, as the display below suggests. The display looks like a full sized ship built in a bottle.
Cool List of Glass Architecture

Modern glass structures are not restricted to being on land. As the picture below shows, glass can also be used to create a boat. The houseboat below is located off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf. The primary objective for this design is the unrestricted view offered by a transparent superstructure.

The last example of an unusual use of glass in architecture is the chapel pictured below. Stained glass is generally associated with chapels, cathedrals, and churches. The chapel below in Cuernavaca, Mexico uses clear and frosted glass to create a peaceful place for private contemplation and worship.

There are countless examples of innovative uses of glass in architecture. The versatility and variety of types of glass allows architects to be limited only by their budgets and imaginations.



References

http://www.thecoolist.com/glass-buildings-15-creative-uses-of-glass-in-architecture/

http://www.glassforeurope.com/en/products/characteristics.php#1

Blenko Glass - Amateurs Blowing Glass

Blenko Glass produces hand-blown glass in Milton, WV and has been in business since 1893. On June 6, 2013 teachers from Cabell County toured Blenko Glass and experienced blowing some glass with help from the professionals.

Upon entering the business we were greeted by several large stained glass creations for which Blenko is known. There were the expected religious themed pieces, but there were others commemorating the Titanic, the Red Baron, and the Hindenburg Zeppelin.

We were also reminded that glass is one of the first materials to be recycled. As we entered the production area, we passed piles of colored glass in pieces. This is cullet glass or glass to be remelted and turned into finished product.

1. Why isn't more glass recycled more than it currently is?

2. Why is it cheaper to recycle glass than to produce new from raw materials.

3. Why is glass not used as a packaging material as much as plastic?

Temperatures required to melt glass can be as high as 2,000 degrees Celsius. These temperatures require a great deal of energy and so, producing glass can be a very expensive process. The melting point of glass is lower than the melting points of the raw materials that form glass. This means that it is more economical to recycle used glass than to produce new glass.