Evolution of the compositions of commercial glasses 1830 to 1990. Part II. Container glass

Abstract

This paper treats container glasses in the same way as an earlier paper reviewed flat glass compositions. Data for more than 970 analyses of container glasses manufactured during 150 years in 37 countries have been collected and analysed. The data obviously include containers made by hand as well as by machine from green, white and amber glasses. Compositions developed along two lines, one being green and brown glasses coloured by manganese; such glasses were characterized by low alkali content compensated by increased RO and higher AI2O3 contents. The other, younger, line includes white glasses historically descended from old "forest glasses" and closely related amber glasses. The compositions of both lines converged gradually, so that from about 1970 all container glasses have fallen within a narrow range of compositions, differing in little but their colouring oxides. Differences between particular producers and countries have decreased a great deal.