User:DaleHabe/sandbox

Wikipedia Project Sources:

• A Brief History of Early Silica Glass: Impact on Science and Society (2019)

- Seth C. Rasmussen

• The “Wonderful Properties of Glass”: Liebig's Kaliapparat and the Practice of Chemistry in Glass (2015)

- Jackson, Catherine M

• The Visual Image of Chemistry: Perspectives from the History of Art and Science (2007)

- Joachim Schummer and Tami I. Spector

• From Topos to Oikos: The Standardization of Glass Containers as Epistemic Boundaries in Modern Laboratory Research (1850-1900)

- Espahangizi, Kijan

Things to add/working on

• Add a little bit of information about various kinds glassware in a lab, such as a beaker, flask, test tube, pipettes, Florence flask, etc.
• Add about old glassmaking and how it got refined enough to create laboratory glassware

Notes/New things to insert

Many chemist made their own glass such as Jöns Jacob Berzelius who invented the Test Tube in the 1820's which quickly became popular among chemist because of its stemless, heat-resistant, inexpensive design.

Many glasses that were produced in bulk in the 1830's would quickly become unclear and dirty because of the low quality glass being used.

Borosilicate glass is a type of transparent glass that is composed of boron oxide and silica, its main feature is a low coefficient of thermal expansion making it more resistant to thermal shock than most other glasses.

The most common beaker is the Griffin beaker originally made of Pyrex glass, it was named after its creator John Joseph Griffin in the 1800's.

The Petri dish is a flat dish filled with a nutritious gelatin that allows for microorganisms to quickly grow, its named after its inventor Julius Petri in the 1880's.

Stirring rods are glass rods used for mixing chemicals.

Examples

There are many different kinds of laboratory glassware items:

Examples of glassware containers include:

• Beakers are simple cylindrical shaped containers used to hold reagents or samples.
• Flasks are narrow-necked glass containers, typically conical or spherical, used in a laboratory to hold reagents or samples. Examples flasks include the Erlenmeyer flask, Florence flask, and Schlenk flask.
• Bottles are containers with narrow openings generally used to store reagents or samples. Small bottles are called vials.
• Jars are cylindrical containers with wide openings that may be sealed. Bell jars are used to contain vacuums.
• Test tubes are used by chemists to hold, mix, or heat small quantities of solid or liquid chemicals, especially for qualitative experiments and assays
• Desiccators of glass construction are used to dry materials or keep material dry.
• Glass evaporating dishes, such as watch glasses, are primarily used as an evaporating surface (though they may be used to cover a beaker.)
• The Petri dish is a flat dish filled with a nutritious gelatin that allows for microorganisms to quickly grow, its named after its inventor Julius Petri in the 1880's.
• Microscope slides are thin strips used to hold items under a microscope.

Examples of glassware used for measurements include:

• Graduated cylinders are thin and tall cylindrical containers used for volumetric measurements.
• Volumetric flasks are for measuring a specific volume of fluid.
• Burettes are similar to graduated cylinders but have a valve at the end used to disperse precise amounts of liquid reagents often for titrations.
• Glass pipettes are used to transfer precise quantities of fluids.
• Glass Ebulliometers are used to accurately measure the boiling point of liquids.

Other examples of glassware includes:

• Stirring rods are glass rods used to mix chemicals.
• Condensers are used to condense vapors by cooling them down and turning them into liquids.
• Glass retorts are used for distillation by heating, they have a bulb with a long curved spout.
• Drying pistols are used to free samples from traces of water, or other impurities.

Article Draft

The history of glassware dates back to the Phoenicians who fused obsidian together in campfires making the first glassware. Glassware evolved as other ancient civilizations including the Syrians, Egyptians, and Romans refined the art of glassmaking. Mary the Jewess, an alchemist in Alexandria during the 1st century AD, is credited for the creation of some of the first glassware for chemical use including a device to heat such as the kerotakis which was used for the collection of fumes from a heated material. Despite these creations, glassware for chemical uses was still limited during this time because of the low thermal stability necessary for experimentation and therefore was primarily made using copper or ceramic materials.

The art of glassmaking in 16th century Venice was refined to the point where intricate shapes could be made.

During the 19th century, more chemists began to recognize the importance of glassware due to its transparency, and the ability to control the conditions of experiments.. Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who invented the test tube, and Michael Faraday both contributed greatly to the rise of chemical glassblowing. Faraday published Chemical Manipulation in 1827 which detailed the process for creating many types of small tube glassware and some experimental techniques for tube chemistry. Berzelius wrote a similar textbook titled Chemical Operations and Apparatus which provided a variety of chemical glassblowing techniques. The rise of this chemical glassblowing opened chemical experimentation to everyone and led to a shift towards the dominate use of glassware in laboratories. The rise of this chemical glassblowing opened chemical experimentation to everyone and led to a shift towards the dominate use of glassware in laboratories. With the emergence of glassware in laboratories, the need for organization and standards arose. The Prussian Society for the Advancement of Industry was one of the earliest organizations to support the collaborative improvement of the quality of glass used.

Most laboratory glassware was manufactured in Germany up until the start of World War I. Before World War I, glass producers in the United States had difficulty competing with German laboratory glassware manufacturers because laboratory glassware was classified as educational material and was not subject to an import tax. During World War I, the supply of laboratory glassware to the United States was cut off.

In 1915 Corning Glassworks developed borosilicate glass , which was a boon to the war effort in the United States. Though after the war, many laboratories turned back to imports, research into better glassware flourished. Glassware became more immune to thermal shock while maintaining chemical inertness. Further important technologies impacting the development of laboratory glassware included the development of polytetrafluoroethylene, and a drop in price to the point laboratory glassware is, in some cases, more economical to throw away than to re-use.