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Probably when some prehistoric man first found a fulgurite created by a lightning strike on some beach and decided in a flash of genius that it was useful and might possibly be replicated.For thousands of years glass was thought of as something to look at. It was valued for decoration and for making precious objects. Glass really became useful when it was thought of as something to look through. No one really knows when or where the secret of making glass was first learned, though we know it has been used since very early days. The chief ingredients for making glass are sand, soda ash, or potash and lime, melted together at a high temperature. Since these materials are found in abundance in many parts of the world, the secret of glass making could have been discovered in many countries. According to one story, the ancient Phoenicians deserve the credit for this discovery. A crew of a ship landed at the mouth of a river in Syria. When they were ready to cook their dinner, they could find no stones on which to support their kettle. So they used lumps of niter (a sodium com pound) from the ship's cargo.

The heat of the fire melted the niter, which mixed with the surrounding sand and flowed out as a stream of liquid glass! This story may or may not be true, but Syria was one of the original homes of glass making. And ancient Phoenician traders sold glassware all through the Mediterranean countries. Egypt was Another Country in which glass making was known at an early time. Glass beads and charms have been found in tombs which date back as far as 7000 B. C. , but these glass objects may have come from Syria. We know that about 1500 B. C. the Egyptians were making their own glass. The Egyptians mixed crushed quartz pebbles with the sand to change the color of the glass. They learned, too, that by adding cobalt, copper, or manganese to the mixture, they could produce glass with rich blue, green, or purple color. After 1200 B. C. the Egyptians learned to press glass into molds. But the blowpipe for blowing glass did not come into use until shortly before the beginning of the Christian Era. It was a Phoenician invention. The Romans were great glass makers, and even used glass in thin panes as a coating for walls. By the time of the Christian Era, glass was already being used for windowpanes!

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