The History of Glass — From Pharaoh's Beads to the Fibre Age

You are looking through it right now, and you almost never notice it. This documentary traces the astonishing story of glass: from beads worth as much as gemstones in the Egypt of the pharaohs and the fiery workshops of Mesopotamia, through Pliny's legend of the Phoenician sailors who supposedly discovered it by accident on a Syrian beach. Follow the Roman blowpipe that made glass cheap for the first time, the enamelled mosque lamps of the Islamic masters, and the guarded furnaces of Murano, where Venice protected its cristallo secrets on pain of death. Then watch glass bend light itself — the stained-glass cathedrals of Chartres, the first spectacles, Galileo's telescope, and the mirrors of Versailles — before industry turns it into skyscrapers, safety glass, Pyrex, Gorilla Glass and the optical fibres that now carry the internet. This is the complete history of glass — the invisible material that built the modern world. CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to History Lens 00:05 Born in Fire — Mesopotamia and Egypt 01:02 Pliny's Sailors — The Legend of Discovery 01:48 The Roman Blowpipe — Glass for Everyone 02:37 The Islamic Masters — Lamps, Lustre and Alchemy 03:26 Murano — Venice's Island of Secrets 04:15 Cathedrals of Light — Stained Glass 05:03 Lenses — The Eyes of Science 05:53 The Mirror — Seeing Ourselves 06:40 Plate Glass and Skyscrapers 07:32 Unbreakable — Safety Glass and Pyrex 08:19 Gorilla Glass and the Fibre Age #history #glass #documentary #historyofglass Subscribe to History Lens for more amazing history documentaries!