Glass, in one form or another, has long been in noble service to humans. As one of the most widely used of manufactured materials, and certainly the most versatile, it can be as imposing as a telescope mirror the width of a tennis court or as small and simple as a marble rolling across dirt. The uses of this adaptable material have been broadened dramatically by new technologies: glass fiber optics - more than eight million miles - carrying telephone and television signals across nations; glass ceramics serving as the nose cones of missiles and as crowns for teeth' tiny glass beads taking radiation doses inside the body to specific organs; even a new type of glass fashioned of nuclear waste in order to dispose to that unwanted material.
On the horizon are optical computers. These could store programs and process information by means of light - pulses from tiny lasers - rather than electrons. And the pulses would travel over glass fibers, not copper wire. These machines could function hundreds of times faster than today's electronic computers and hold vastly more information. Today fiber optics are used to obtain a clearer image of smaller and smaller objects than ere before - even bacterial viruses. A new generation of optical instruments is emerging that can provide detailed imaging of the inner workings of cells. It is the surge in fiber optic use and in liquid crystal displays that has set the U.S. glass industry (a 16 billion dollar business employing some 150 000 workers) to building new plants to meet demand.
But it is not only in technology and commerce that glass has widened its horizons. The use of glass has widened its horizons> The use of glass as art, a tradition going back at least to Roman times, is also booming. Nearly everywhere, it seems, men and women are blowing glass and creating works of art. 'I didn't see apiece of glass until 1975,' Dale Chihuly said, smiling, for in the 18 years since the end of the dry spell, he has become one of the most financially successful artists of the 29th century . He now has a new commission - a glass sculpture for the headquarters building of a pizza company - for which his fee is half a million dollars.
But not all the glass technology that touches our lives is ultra-modern. Consider the simple light bulb; at the turn of the century most light bulbs were hand blown, and the cost of one was equivalent to half a day's pay for the average worker. In effect, the invention of the ribbon machine by Corning in the 1920l lighted a nation. The price of bulb plunged. Small wonder that the machine has been called one of the treat mechanical achievements of all time. Yet it is very simple: a narrow ribbon of molten glass travels over a moving belt of steel in which there are holes. The glass sags through the holes and into waiting moulds. Puffs of compressed air then shape the glass. In this way, the envelope of alight bulb is made by a single machine at the rate of 66, 000 an hour, as compared with 1,200 a day produced by team of four glassblower.
Today, scientists continue to experiment with new glass mixtures and building applications of special types of glass. A London architect, Mike Davies, sees even more dramatic buildings using molecular chemistry. 'Glass is the great building skin",' he said. 'Think of glass that has been treated to react to electric currents going through it, glass that will change form clear to opaque at he push of button, that gives you instant curtains. Think of how the tall buildings in New York could perform a symphony of colors as the glass in them is made to change colors instantly.' Glass as instant curtains is available now, but he cost is exorbitant. As for the glass changing colors instantly, that may come true. Mike Divide's vision may indeed be on the way to fulfillment.
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