Fun facts about Glass

Funfacts about Glass

 

I found this on Ben’s Funfacts about Glass it is a bit of an in depth facts about glass I copied this small portion of the article, thinking this was something you would find very interesting.

Tempering as an industrial process started in the 20^th century, but it was a party trick far before that.  One of the first examples of tempered glass is something called Prince Rupert’s drops, named after the Bavarian prince who brought it to the attention of the court.  If you let a blob of glass fall into a bucket of water, it will form an extended teardrop shape with interesting properties.  The bulbous end of the drop is tempered and can withstand extreme force, such as hitting it with a hammer.  The tail, however, is very delicate, and if broken, the whole thing will shatter into tiny pieces.  Rupert apparently amused himself by placing the drops in the hands of visitors and snapping the tails, leaving them with a handful of shattered glass.  Such was the state of entertainment of 17^th century Bavaria, I’m afraid.  But you’ve got to admit the things are pretty cool, you can see in the following video.  When you think about it, the fact that every video you’ve ever seen was projected through glass, the fact that this is probably one of the very few you’ve seen about the stuff is a bit odd, but that’s glass for you.  It’s odd stuff.

 

 

http://youtu.be/6V2eCFsDkK0