Comments on: Glass in the Roman World

Glass in the Roman World

carter — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:00:54 -0800

Vitrum: Glass Between Art and Science in the Roman World , an exhibition hosted by the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, describes the use of glass in different areas of Roman life: technology, daily life, architecture, and science. Each of the items in the themed galleries is linked to a large, high-resolution image; some beautiful examples of 2000-year-old glass include: a decorative glass hexagon, a blue glass cup from pompeii, and a striped mosaic glass cup.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:10:11 -0800

Incidentally, these ancient artifacts disprove the folk wisdom that glows "flows" or "sags" in old windows. If glass could visibly sag in a mere 150 years; then how could these 2000 year old specimens be anything other than puddles? The bottom line: glass does not "flow" in human timescales. As to whether or not glass could be properly called a "liquid", that is a question of nomenclature and various disciplines disagree on it. Materials Scientists, however, do not consider glass a "liquid". These are wonderful, wonderful links and I beg forgiveness if in any way this comment derails the thread. Something about the post, though, made me think someone, somehow, somewhere, would comment on glass being a "liquid" and I thought I'd stop that nonsense in its tracks. If someone wants to argue about it, please just email me or something.

By: dorian

dorian — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:55:05 -0800

those are some amazing pieces, and the hi-res links are even more spectacular. funny how we get most of this stuff as the result of cities being destroyed yet preserved -- I think pompeii is one of the most interesting places on earth (but herculaneum I found very boring for some reason...) (nb: sorta-self-linkage) glass, glass, glass, glass, glass, glass, and lastly, glass! no argument against the state of glass here (bottom of pane thicker == result of early mfgr technique); but the pitch-drop experiment is pretty neat.

By: bingo

bingo — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:58:18 -0800

I love this one. "Roman glassware provides some of the best available evidence that types of soda-lime glass are not fluid, even after nearly 2000 years."

By: 12345

12345 — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:06:01 -0800

Carter: A pint of bitter Carter: in a thin glass! great links! i would agree that most windows that are thick on the bottom are thick because of manufacturing, but ancient glassware has done little to the flowing glass argument. A thin heavily leaded glass pane on it's edge in the sun is what is rumored to flow visibly within 150 years. bingo: that one is amazing, what do you think his expression is of?

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 03:24:56 -0800

Yeah, except it doesn't happen.