Glassblowing
Vidrio soplado
- Date
- c. 50 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Syro-Phoenician coast (Sidon, Jerusalem), Lebanon / Israel
- Credited to
- Syro-Palestinian glassmakers
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A technique of inflating a mass of molten glass with a hollow iron blowpipe to form vessels in seconds, as opposed to the months required by the core-forming technique. It made glass a cheap, everyday object.
Workshop waste from Jerusalem (c. 50 BCE) is the earliest evidence.
What it led to
- Glass tableware, bottles and jars for the whole of Roman society
- Transparent packaging that revolutionised the trade in wine, perfumes and medicines
- Glass windows and mirrors
- Chemistry and optics carried out in transparent vessels (the still, lenses)
Built on
- Glass makingc. 2500 BCE
- Egyptian core-formed glass
- High-temperature furnace
- Iron blowing cane