Otto Schott and the invention of borosilicate glass

Abstract

Until about 1880, only two types of glass were known with respect to their chemical composition: soda-lime-silica glass and lead glass. Although glass containing boron had been manufactured occasionally since the Middle Ages, Otto Schott (1851 to 1935), the founder of the Glastechnisches Laboratorium Schott & Gen. in Jena, was the first to develop borosilicate glass to a level of scientific and industrial maturity. Thus, he was the actual inventor of borosilicate glass - a new, third type of glass. In summer 1893 - now 100 years ago - the Glastechnisches Laboratorium put borosilicate laboratory glassware on the market for the first time. The 100th anniversary of Schott laboratory glass should be the occasion to present the pioneer borosilicate glass research by Otto Schott. At first, he developed glass containing boric acid for optics with improved and predictable optical properties. Based on this work, he turned to technical glass. Thermometer glass, laboratory glass and lamp chimneys were the first fields of application for chemically and thermally resistant borosilicate glass [1; 2, p. 20-29, 36-39; 3]. Otto Schott's invention paved the way for glass as a material to advance into new dimensions and provided the basis for important scientific and technical progress. With the development and mass production of ready-to-use borosilicate glass, the Glastechnisches Laboratorium rose from a scientifically based handwork operation to a leading international group in the special glass sector.