Ruby glass is a fragile material from Ancient Egypt

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

One of the substances and materials known since ancient times is glass. By the diversity of its properties, it is truly universal. An artificial substance is obtained by melting glass-forming components and various chemical elements to give the desired color (quartz sand, limestone, oxides of silicon, boron, aluminum, phosphorus, zirconium, magnesium, copper, etc.). The color palette ranges from clear and colorless to all sorts of vibrant hues, including vibrant ruby glass.

Glass Story

The material obtained by boiling under the influence of high temperatures (from + 300-2500°C) was produced in ancient Egypt several thousand years before our era. Colored glass appeared much earlier than white and transparent. Glassblowers of those times could not get a clean product, so mostly dirty shades of green, brown, gray were common.

After a while, additives began to be specially introducedsome metals, and dirty shades were covered with bright colors. Glass became like precious stones, rings, bottles, beads, bowls, vases were made from it.

As glassmaking evolved, craftsmen learned to obtain a variety of colors, the glass itself became purer, and the art of production and coloring remained a strict secret. Similar to precious stones, bright ruby glass was made back in the 17th century, for this gold was added.

Antonio Neri in his treatise of 1612 explained the relationship of rubies and gold metal, and the first brewing recipe was developed by the German-born alchemist Johann Kegel at the end of the 17th century. The production process in Central Europe in the 18th century underwent a slight change, making the shade a characteristic blood red or brownish.

In Russia, Mikhail Lomonosov developed a recipe, built laboratories where ruby glass was created, and set up its production. The color of glass tinted in pink, crimson, red, magenta shades was explained by the different amounts of gold nanoparticles and heat treatment conditions.

Ruby production with gold

The complexity of manufacturing lies in the multicomponent composition from which ruby glass is made, the chemical elements gold and copper in this composition are responsible for coloring the finished material. Red glass is the most difficult to produce, as it contains about a dozen elements. Depending on the components of the raw materials and the additives used, the glass acquires its own characteristics.properties.

Ruby glass is obtained in several stages:

1. By fusing glass melt with a small amount of gold chloride.
2. The cooling period during which the mass becomes transparent or slightly yellowish.
3. Reheat to incandescent temperature.
4. Slow cooling with red colored glass.

This procedure is called staining, and the resulting ruby glass acquires the ability to transmit only red rays.

Gold substitutes in rubies

Cheaper grades of ruby glass are obtained by using silver, copper, selenium instead of gold in production. In such cases, glass is made in the following way:

1. Melting and boiling the mass with the addition of a small amount of tin and copper.
2. The resulting colorless mass is cooled.
3. Repeated glow to a certain temperature.
4. Dyeing and cooling period.

After that, the glass acquires beautiful red shades, identical to precious stones. The production of rubies with copper used to be considered more precise and capricious, as it was not always possible to achieve coloring or the desired degree of its brightness.

Production Methods

The main ways of making glass products are:

1. Blowing is one of the most ancient, painstaking and complex production techniques. It consists in the development and practical application of complex technology, where the main requirement is highprecision and accuracy. In the modern world, this technique is used in two ways. Manual, when the products are blown with a glass tube. To do this, a glass mass is collected at its end and then inflated, gradually rotating the tube and giving the desired shape. Mechanized, when the product is blown on glass-forming machines using compressed air. Most of these machines operate on an automatic principle. This is how hollow products of various configurations are blown: narrow-necked products for the medical and perfume industries, food and chemical containers, and household utensils. Rare exclusive products, unique shapes and variations are always produced only by hand blowing masters.
2. Pressing is the simplest way to produce glass products, in which a portion of the glass mass is placed in a mold under a press and the product is extruded into a precisely defined shape. After complete cooling, the product is removed from the mold. Usually these are thick-walled products with surface irregularities and seams. As well as blowing, pressing can be manual and mechanical. With manual, a machine with a lever or spring press is used. The mechanized press is on automatic glass-forming machines of glass factories.
3. Casting. This method consists in pouring the glass mass into a specially made mold. After cooling, the glass acquires the required configuration, thickness and size.

Applying ruby glass

Glass has received wide distribution and application in various fields due to its ability to transform fromliquid to solid as it cools during production. In the molten state, it takes any given shape, which is retained after solidification.

Glass is widely used in various industries. Ruby glass is used for the production of household items. Glasses, bowls, bowls, candy bowls, candlesticks, carafes, dinner sets and much more are made from this fragile material. It is used in decorative, applied arts, jewelry. As it turned out, not only well-known Kremlin stars and vases are made from it, ruby glass is also used in engineering, construction, and industry.

Today, chemists have learned how to get rubies by adding selenium to glass instead of gold and copper, combining it with other chemicals. Depending on their concentration, ruby glass can be obtained in various shades.