It is a material of inorganic origin whose main characteristics are its hardness, fragility, transparency, which does not have a well-defined shape, it can be manufactured artificially by humans and can also be obtained naturally thanks to nature. Its artificial shape is obtained when sodium carbonate, silica sand and limestone are mixed, later these materials are subjected to very high temperatures to finally give it the shape. The most common uses that it is usually given are for making bottles and windows.
The use of glass is nothing new, since for thousands of years, human beings used glass of natural origin, to make various tools, especially weapons such as knives and arrow tips that would facilitate the work of hunting., collecting in addition to serving as a tool for defense against enemies. Some evidence collected by researchers, affirm that in the 1st century the merchants who sold sodium carbonate and who went to the Egyptian empire, used to rest on the banks of the rivers, these having no way to hold the pots to cook their food, decided to use sodium carbonateTo his surprise, the latter joined the sand of the river, giving rise to a shiny material with a hard consistency, glass.
Currently there are a large number of variables in this material, some of which are:
- Vitreous Silica: it is an oxide of silicon, in its solid state it can appear in up to 22 different forms, the most common being quartz, tridymite, and cristobalite. This has great resistance to different chemical substances and for this reason it is frequently used in laboratory materials.
- Lead glass: so named since it is composed of lead dioxide, the latter takes the place of calcium oxide, due to its color, it is widely used for decoration.
- Crown glass: its composition is basically silicates that bind with alkaline hydroxides, it is very common that it is used in lenses and other optical tools.
