One of the substances and materials known since ancient times is glass. In terms of the variety 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 transparent and colorless to all kinds of bright colors, including bright ruby glass.
Glass story
Obtained by cooking under the influence of high temperatures (from + 300-2500 ° C), the material was produced in Ancient Egypt several thousand years BC. Stained 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 of some metals began to be specially introduced, and dirty shades were blocked by bright colors. Glass became like precious stones, rings, bottles, beads, bowls, vases were made from it.
With the development of glassmaking, craftsmen learned to get a variety of colors, the glass itself became cleaner, and the art of production and painting remained a strict secret. Similar to precious stones, bright ruby glass was made in the XVII century, for this purpose gold was introduced into the composition.
Antonio Neri in his treatise of 1612 explained the kinship of rubies and gold metal, and the first cooking recipe was developed by Johann Kegel, an alchemist of German origin, at the end of the 17th century. The manufacturing process in Central Europe underwent minor changes in the 18th century, making the hue a characteristic blood red or brownish.
In Russia, Mikhail Lomonosov developed the recipe, built laboratories where ruby glass was created, and set up its production. The color of the glass painted in pink, raspberry, red, and purple hues was explained by different amounts of gold nanoparticles and heat treatment conditions.
Ruby production with gold
The complexity of manufacturing lies in the multicomponent composition of 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 manufacture, as it contains about a dozen elements. Depending on the components of the raw materials and the additives used, glass acquires its properties.
Ruby glass is obtained in several stages:
- By fusing glass with a small mass of gold chloride.
- The cooling period, during which the mass becomes transparent or slightly yellowish.
- Reheat to incandescent temperature.
- Slow cooling with the acquisition of red glass.
This procedure is called colorization, 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, and selenium instead of gold in the production. In such cases, glass is made in the following way:
- Melting and cooking the mass with the addition of a small amount of tin and copper.
- The resulting colorless mass is cooled.
- Re-glow to a certain temperature.
- The period of staining and cooling.
After that, the glass acquires beautiful red shades identical to precious stones. The production of rubies with copper was previously considered more accurate and capricious, since it was not always possible to achieve staining or the desired degree of brightness.
Manufacturing methods
The main methods for manufacturing glass products are:
- 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 high accuracy and accuracy. In the modern world, this technique uses two methods. Manual, when products are blown using a glass-blowing tube. To do this, 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 basis. So hollow products of various configurations are blown: narrow-necked products for the medical, perfumery industry, food and chemical containers, household utensils. Rare exclusive products of unique shapes and variations are always made only by masters of manual blowing.
- Pressing is the simplest method for the production of glass products, in which a portion of the glass mass is placed in a mold under a press and the product is squeezed out to a precisely defined shape. After complete cooling, the product is removed from the mold. Usually these are thick-walled products with the presence of surface irregularities and seams. As well as blowing, pressing is manual and mechanical. For manual use, a machine with lever or spring press is used. The mechanized press stands on automatic glass-forming machines of glassworks.
- Casting. This method consists in pouring the glass mass into a specially made mold. After cooling, the glass acquires the necessary configuration, thickness and size.
The use of ruby glass
Glass has gained wide distribution and application in various fields because of its ability to transform from liquid to solid state as it cools down during production. In the molten state, it takes any predetermined shape that remains after solidification.
Glass is widely used in various industries. Ruby glass is used to produce household items. Glasses, bowls, bowls, candy bowls, candlesticks, decanters, dinner sets and much more are made of this fragile material. Use it in decorative, applied art, jewelry. As it turned out, not only famous Kremlin stars and vases are made from it, ruby glass is also used in engineering, construction, and industry.
Today, chemists learned how to get rubies by adding selenium to the glass instead of gold and copper, combining it with other chemicals. Depending on their concentration, you can get ruby glass of all kinds of shades.