SCIENCE TALK: Glass: From Volcanic Rock to Optical Fiber - Anthony Graham

Glass is one of the oldest materials made by humans, yet it remains one of the most technologically important. It appears in windows and drinking glasses, but also in microscopes, telescopes, laboratory equipment, insulation, computer displays, batteries, fiber-optic networks, and countless engineered products. This talk explores what glass actually is, how humans learned to make it, why it has such unusual properties, and how modern science has transformed it into a highly engineered material.
We will begin by exploring natural glasses and what distinguishes glass from crystalline materials. This will include topics such as the glass transition, viscosity, annealing, thermal stress, and devitrification. We will then examine the chemistry of glass, from its raw ingredients of silica sand, soda ash, and limestone to the other ingredients that control properties such as melting behavior, color, refractive index, and chemical durability.
The history of glassmaking reveals how advances in technology, from early casting and cold-working to the blow tube and the development of clear glass, expanded what could be made. We will also explore the chemistry behind colored, opaque, and reflective glass, as well as properties such as hardness, chemical resistance, and optical behavior.
Finally, we will look at why glass, despite its intrinsic strength, can be so fragile, including the role of internal stress and fracture. We will connect this to tempered, chemically Glass: From Volcanic Rock to Optical Fiberstrengthened, and laminated glass before moving into modern manufacturing, including float glass, glass fibers, specialty glasses, formed glass, and optical fibers.

About The Speaker
Anthony earned his degree in Chemistry from Troy University in 2011 and has practiced glassblowing since 2014. Since 2022, he has worked professionally in the glass laboratory at Jonhs Manville, specializing in the analysis of glass chemistry and material properties. This combination of scientific training and practical experience has provided him with a multidisciplinary perspective on glass as both a material and a medium. His work explores the intersection of chemistry, material science, craftsmanship, and the historical development of glass, with an emphasis on understanding how the composition and properties of glass influence its behavior and applications.