The Perfect Glass

August 22, 2005

by Joel Akin

Most glass consists of the sands of time. It is the integration of those sands which determines the right path for that window. In my jobs I've worked in various glass shops and have seen the dangers inherit with the 2 mil glass. It is fragile, thin and easily broken and a major danger for the movers. If there were ever a glass that should be handled totally by machines it is this glass. It is not really suitable for windows and is, in my opinion, useable perhaps for picture framing. The problem is some do use it for windows and it is a danger because it fractures jaggedly and the shards are very dangerous.

 When you take glass to its infinite conclusion you start to come up with some fascinating uses for it. Take the Japanese, connoisseurs in their own right of cool ideas. One that they built steam on was the window that was polarized, solar powered, as in it provided power to your home, and could change from dark to light.

When we speak of glass we speak of ways to use it from the coffee table to the windows that open and close. The European variety actually move in almost any direction. Growing up with had the pull tabs you had and then you had to lift up the window and then release the tabs. It was a pain especially when you had freshly painted the edges. If you moved the window too soon after being painted the paint would rip right off.

Today glass is still a fragile commodity. It is merging in many ways with plastic and plastic is beginning to become glass. Perhaps one of the reasons is plastic is moldable in ways that glass is not. One of the new plastic resins they are experimenting with is supposed to be bullet proof. But it also has the ability to heal itself. Various types of resins would then be perfect for submarines as well. Impacts would self-heal and pressure would allow the resin to deform but not break. It would be difficult of course to take such a resin into outer space because on the way in it would melt like hot wax.

Glass is an essential element for earth homes. Every home needs it but not every type is good for longevity. If I have glass I want to make sure they retain their clarity, brilliance, and are safe to be around. I want tall windows, wind resistant, storm proof and able to withstand anything an earthquake can throw at it. But how do you follow such a path to find such a perfect glass? Where does the materials come from? From the sands, from the clays, from the building materials of the earth is the answer. Time will show us glasses secrets and we will see these materials used in a thousand different ways. Until that time I prefer the glass to be the one I drink from and the one I look through. Let them be taken for granted so that our great grandchildren can look through that same window and dream their dreams as well.