The term “glass” developed in the late…

The term “glass” developed in the late Roman Empire.

It was in the Roman glassmaking center at Trier, now in modern Germany, that the late-Latin term glesum originated, probably from a Germanic word for a transparent, lustrous substance.

While naturally occurring glass, especially the volcanic glass obsidian, had been used by many Stone Age societies across the globe for the production of sharp cutting tools and, due to its limited source areas, was extensively traded, archaeological evidence suggests that the first true glass was made in coastal north Syria, Mesopotamia or Ancient Egypt.

The earliest known glass objects, of the mid-third millennium BCE, were beads, perhaps initially created as accidental byproducts of metalworking (slags) or during the production of faience, a pre-glass vitreous material made by a process similar to glazing.

Glass remained a luxury material, and the disasters that overtook Late Bronze Age civilizations seem to have brought glassmaking to a halt.

Indigenous development of glass technology in South Asia may have begun in 1730 BCE, whereas in ancient China, glassmaking seems to have a late start, compared to ceramics and metal work.

In the Roman Empire, glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts.

Glass begins to be used extensively during the Middle Ages.

Anglo-Saxon glass has been found across England during archaeological excavations of both settlement and cemetery sites.

Glass in the Anglo-Saxon period is used in the manufacture of a range of objects including vessels, beads, windows and was also used in jewelry.

Optical glass for spectacles has been in use since the late Middle Ages.

The production of lenses has become increasingly proficient, aiding astronomers as well as having other application in medicine and science.

Glass is employed from the tenth century onward in stained glass windows of churches and cathedrals, with famous examples at Chartres Cathedral and the Basilica of Saint Denis.

Architects by the fourteenth century are designing buildings with walls of stained glass such as Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, (1203-1248) and the East end of Gloucester Cathedral.

Stained glass has a major revival with Gothic Revival architecture in the nineteenth century.

The use of large stained glass windows becomes less prevalent with the Renaissance and a change in architectural style.

The use of domestic stained glass increases until it is general for every substantial house to have glass windows.

These are initially of small panes leaded together, but with the changes in technology, glass can be manufactured relatively cheaply in increasingly larger sheets, leading to larger window panes, and, in the twentieth century, to much larger windows in ordinary domestic and commercial premises.

Such new types of glass as laminated glass, reinforced glass and glass bricks in the twentieth century increase the use of glass as a building material and result in new applications of glass.

Multistory buildings are frequently constructed with curtain walls made almost entirely of glass.

Similarly, laminated glass is widely applied to vehicles for windscreens.

While glass containers have always been used for storage and are valued for their hygienic properties, glass has been utilized increasingly in industry.

Glass is also employed as the aperture cover in many solar energy systems.