Stone-age man has used naturally occurring glass obsidian, the black volcanic glass, and tektites to craft weapons and decorative objects.
Archaeological findings in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia indicate that the first manufactured glass dates back to 3000BC. The oldest fragments of glass vases were found in Mesopotamia in the 16th century BC and they represented the evidence of the origins of the hollow glass industry. Beside Mesopotamia, hollow glass production was also evolving in the same time in Egypt, in Mycenae (Greece), China and North Tyrol. The first glassmaking manual from the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-626 BC) dates back to around 650BC.
In the beginning glassmaking was slow and costly, it was luxury item and few people could afford it. The discovery of new technique of ``glass blowing`` around the end of the 1st century and was a revolutionary event in the history of glass making. This invention was attributed to Syrian craftsmen. The glass bowling made glass production easier, faster and cheaper and glass, for the first time, became available to ordinary citizens. The tools and techniques of glass blowing have changed very little over the centuries.
The art of glass making flourished in the Roman Empire and spread across Western Europe and the Mediterranean. Glass was one of the most important items of trade beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. The Romans were the first one who began to use glass for architectural purposes, when clear glass was discovered in Alexandria around AD 100.
A flourishing glass industry was developed in Europe at the end of the 13th century when the glass industry was established in Venice by the time of Crusades (AD 1096-1270). In 1291, equipment for glassmaking was transferred to the Venetian island Murano where ``cristallo`` (colorless glass) was invented by Angelo Barovier. Despite the efforts of the Venetian artisans who dominated the glass industry to keep the technology secret, it soon spread around Europe.
In Germany and other northern European countries glassmaking became important by the late 1400`s and early 1500`s and during the 1500`s it became important in England. George Ravenscroft (1618-1681), an English glassmaker, invented lead glass in 1674 which was a major breakthrough in the history of glass.
Mechanical technology for mass production began in the latter stages of the Industrial Revolution with Michael Owens`s invention of an automatic bottle blowing machine in 1903 that could produce 2500 bottles per hour.
In the late 1950`s Sir Alastair Pilkington introduced a float glass production method by which 90% of flat glass is still manufactured today.
After 1890, the development, manufacture and use of glass increased rapidly. Glass has evolved through advancing technologies and technological evolution naturally continues. Today, glass-making is a modern, hi-tech industry. Modern glass plants are capable of making millions of glass containers a day in many different colors and have been developed for precise continuous production of sheet glass tubing, containers, bulbs and host of other products.
Ceramics is one of the most ancient industries going back thousands of years. Once humans discovered that clay could be found in abundance and formed into objects by first mixing with water and then firing, a key industry was born. The oldest known ceramic artifact is dated as early as 28,000 BCE (BCE = Before Common Era), during the late Paleolithic period. It is a statuette of a woman, named the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, from a small prehistoric settlement near Brno, in the Czech Republic. In this location, hundreds of clay figurines representing Ice Age animals were also uncovered near the remains of a horseshoe-shaped kiln.
The first examples of pottery appeared in Eastern Asia several thousand years later. In the Xianrendong cave in China, fragments of pots dated to 18,000-17,000 BCE have been found. It is believed that from China the use of pottery successively spread to Japan and the Russian Far East region where archeologists have found shards of ceramic artifacts dating to 14,000 BCE.
Use of ceramics increased dramatically during the Neolithic period, with the establishment of settled communities dedicated to agriculture and farming. Starting approximately in 9,000 BCE, clay-based ceramics became popular as containers for water and food, art objects, tiles and bricks, and their use spread from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. The early products were just dried in the sun or fired at low temperature (below 1,000°C) in rudimentary kilns dug into the ground. Pottery was either monochrome or decorated by painting simple linear or geometric motifs.
It is known that, around 7,000 BCE, people were already using sharp tools made from obsidian, a natural occurring volcanic glass. The Roman historian Pliny reported that the first man-made glass was accidentally produced by Phoenician merchants in 5,000 BCE, when, while resting on a beach, they placed cooking pots on sodium-rich rocks near a fire. The heat from the fire melted the rocks and mixed them with the sand, forming molten glass.
Archeologists have not been able to confirm Pliny’s recount. Instead, simple glass items, such as beads, have been discovered in Mesopotamia and Egypt dating to 3,500 BCE. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, glazed pottery was produced in Mesopotamia. However, it was not until 1,500 BCE that Egyptians started building factories to create glassware for ointments and oils.
One of the first breakthroughs in the fabrication of ceramics was the invention of the wheel, in 3,500 BCE. The introduction of the wheel allowed for the utilization of the wheel-forming technique to produce ceramic artifacts with radial symmetry.
Meanwhile, ceramic pottery evolved in its use of increasingly elaborated paintings, so that these objects eventually became genuine pieces of art. Decorations also involved the use oxidizing and reducing atmosphere during firing to achieve special effects. Greek Attic vases of the 6th and 5th centuries BCE are considered the apex of this evolution.
Throughout the 16th century CE (CE = Common Era), earthenware remained the main class of ceramic products manufactured in Europe and the Middle East. The Chinese were the first to introduce high temperature kilns capable of reaching up to 1350°C, and, around 600 CE, developed porcelain (a material with less than 1% porosity) from kaolin clay. During the Middle Ages, trade through the Silk Road allowed for the introduction and diffusion of porcelain throughout Islamic countries first and later in Europe, due in large part to the journeys of Marco Polo.
By the 15th century the earliest blast furnaces were developed in Europe, capable of reaching up to 1,500°C. They were used to melt iron and were initially constructed from natural materials. When synthetic materials with better resistance to high temperatures (called refractories) were developed in the 16th century, the industrial revolution was born. These refractories created the necessary conditions for melting metals and glass on an industrial scale, as well as for the manufacture of coke, cement, chemicals, and ceramics.
Since then, the ceramic industry has gone through a profound transformation. Not only have traditional ceramics and glass become ubiquitous, but over the years new products have been developed to take advantage of the unique properties of these materials, such as their low thermal and electrical conductivity, high chemical resistance, and high melting point. Around 1850 the first porcelain electrical insulators were introduced, starting the era of technical ceramics.
After World War II, ceramics and glass have contributed to the growth of many technologically advanced fields, including electronics, optoelectronics, medical, energy, automotive, aerospace and space exploration. In addition, innovations in ceramic processing and characterization techniques have enabled the creation of materials with tailored properties that meet the requirements of specific and customized applications. In recent years, ceramic processing has gained new vigor from nanotechnology, which is allowing manufacturers to introduce materials and products with unconventional properties, such as transparent ceramics, ductile ceramics, hyperelastic bones, and microscopic capacitors.
All these advances are expected to drive the global ceramic and glass industry to become a nearly 1.1 trillion dollar market in 2023, up from an estimated $800 billion in 2018.
A summary of the most relevant milestones in the history of ceramics and glass is provided in the table below.
Year(s)Development 28,000 BCECeramic figurines are used for ceremonial purposes. 18,000 BCEChinese pottery appears. 18,000 BCE to 14,000 BCECeramic pottery spreads in Eastern Asia. 9,000 BCECeramic products, such as vases, bricks, and tiles, become popular in the Middle East and Europe. 7,000 BCESharp tools made from natural glass appear. 5,000 BCEPhoenician merchants possibly make the first glass. 3,500 BCESimple glass items are fabricated in Mesopotamia and Egypt. 3,500 BCEThe wheel is invented, which will later be applied in wheel-forming of pottery. 3,000 BCEGlazed pottery is produced in Mesopotamia. 1,500 BCEEgyptians start building factories for production of glassware. 700 BCECeramic pottery becomes artwork in Attic Greece. 600 CE600 CE Chinese introduce porcelain. 1400sHigh-temperature furnaces are developed in Europe for metallurgical use. 1500sHigh-temperature refractory materials are introduced to build furnaces for making steel, glass, ceramics, and cements, leading the way to the industrial revolution. Mid 1800s Porcelain electrical insulators and incandescent light bulbs are invented. 1920sHigh-strength quartz-enriched porcelain for insulators, alumina spark plugs, glass windows for automobiles, and ceramic capacitors are introduced. 1940sResearch on oxide magnetic materials (ferrites) and ferroelectric materials begins. 1950sCeramic capacitors based on barium titanate are developed. 1960sAlumina insulators for voltages over 220 kV are introduced and applications for carbides and nitrides are developed. The first yttria-based transparent ceramic is invented. Bioglass is also discovered. 1970sPartially stabilized zirconia is developed. High-performance cellular ceramic substrates for catalytic converter and particulate filters for diesel engines are commercialized. 1980sCeramic high-temperature superconductors are developed. 1990sMultilayer ceramic circuits (low-temperature co-fired ceramics) are commercialized. Low-fusing ceramics are introduced for dental prostheses. The first whisker-reinforced alumina composites are fabricated by hot-pressing. Polycrystalline neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnets for solid-state lasers are developed. Late 1990sNanotechnology initiatives begin proliferating worldwide. Late 1990sThe robocasting process for 3D printing of ceramics is developed. 2000sBy creating ZrB2/HfB2-based composites that resist temperatures up to 2,200°C, NASA revives interest in the development of ultrahigh temperature ceramics (UHTCs) for fabrication of hypersonic aircraft and reusable space vehicles. 2010sVarious processes are being developed for 3D printing of technical ceramics. In 2017 the first hyperelastic bone is created by 3D printing.