16 Facts About Lead glass

Lead glass, commonly called crystal, is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass.

Lead glass is often desirable for a variety of uses due to its clarity.

Term lead crystal is, technically, not an accurate term to describe lead glass, because glass lacks a crystalline structure and is instead an amorphous solid.

Addition of lead oxide to glass raises its refractive index and lowers its working temperature and viscosity.

The low viscosity of lead glass melt is the reason for typically high lead oxide content in the glass solders.

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In medieval and early modern Europe, lead glass was used as a base in coloured glasses, specifically in mosaic tesserae, enamels, stained-glass painting, and bijouterie, where it was used to imitate precious stones.

Lead glass was ideally suited for enamelling vessels and windows owing to its lower working temperature than the forest glass of the body.

The son of a merchant with close ties to Venice, Ravenscroft had the cultural and financial resources necessary to revolutionise the Lead glass trade, setting the basis from which England overtook Venice and Bohemia as the centre of the Lead glass industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At this period, Lead glass was sold by weight, and the typical forms were rather heavy and solid with minimal decoration.

Such was its popularity in Holland that the first Continental production of lead-crystal glass began there, probably as the result of imported English workers.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, lead-crystal glass was being produced in France, Hungary, Germany, and Norway.

Development of lead glass continued through the twentieth century, when in 1932 scientists at the Corning Glassworks, New York State, developed a new lead glass of high optical clarity.

Lead glass-crystal continues to be used in industrial and decorative applications.

Lead glass could be added directly to a ceramic body in the form of a lead compound in suspension, either from galena, red lead, white lead, or lead oxide .

Lead glass reduces this risk by reducing the surface tension of the glaze.

Lead oxide added to the molten glass gives lead crystal a much higher index of refraction than normal glass, and consequently much greater "sparkle" by increasing specular reflection and the range of angles of total internal reflection.