10 fascinating facts about glass

What is there to learn about glass? Nothing, except that you can drink from it. Guess what! We went on a search and found 10 interesting and spectacular facts about glass for you. Get ready for something.

Glass is as versatile as its surfaces. Rough, matt, cold, smooth and malleable. You can try out a lot with glass; glass has a lot to offer. But glass does not forgive breakage. We have learned how to handle this material because glass has been by our side for 10 years. So here are 10 crystal clear facts for 10 years of glass. We want to celebrate this with our “year of glass” campaign. This year is for you, glass. you're my heart, you're my soul. You're my favorite material, rock'n roll.

our soulful 10 glass facts

1. Filling drinks into glass bottles is a tradition that was established in ancient times around 5,000 years ago. In Germany, there is a glass wine bottle that contains 1,650-year-old Roman wine. It is in the museum in the Palatinate and you could probably still taste it - that's what experts say. We prefer a fresh glass of tap water, wow.

2. Our soul history also began with long-gone drinks in glass bottles. The very first soulbottle was a small hip flask. “Bruce Lee” on the front and “be water my friend” on the back. Paul went to a party with this test print in his backpack and forgot it there. The host thought this cute glass bottle was a gift and took it with him to Hamburg. We still don’t know where it is. If you’re reading this, Bruce, get in touch.

   

   Photo credits: Marten Newhall/ unsplash & Haley Owens/ unsplash

3. Industrially produced glass consists of the natural raw materials such as quartz sand, soda and lime , which melt at around 1,400 °C to 1,600 °C. Tadaa, glass! Glass can also be created naturally. When lightning strikes sand in the desert, the heat creates glass. This is because glass is mostly made of quartz sand, which melts when the lightning strikes.

   

   Here on the left you can see a glass flash: called fulgurite. Next to it, industrially manufactured: our soulbottle. Photo credits: Irene Gaume/ https://irenegaume.persona.co/Fulgurites

4. Glass bottles can be produced in a CO₂-neutral manner. Namely at soulbottles and that is a small sensation, because glass production is usually very energy-intensive and therefore does not have a good climate balance. Since glass drinking bottles are our core product, we cannot let this happen. Our solution is called Eco2Bottle . With this amazing product range at Wiegand glass We were able to save around 75% of CO₂ last year. We compensate for the rest.

5. Glass experiences no significant loss of quality during recycling and can therefore be continually reused in a closed material cycle. Up to 60% recycled glass can now be used to produce white and brown glass, and even 100% for drinking bottles made of green glass. Our glass soulbottles also consist of around 60% recycled glass.

6. Glass is liquid and solid at the same time. Glass seems very stable. Especially if you accidentally walk into a glass door - we all know the pain in your nose. But on a molecular level, things are completely different. Even if the surface appears solid, the molecules that make up the glass are constantly moving. However, they are so slow that it would take 44 trillion times as long as the Earth has existed for a freshly made soulbottle to harden completely.

7. Glass has convincing properties : crystal clear, tasteless, odorless, insensitive to heat and free from harmful substances. From a health perspective, glass is therefore the best packaging material for all types of food. And for us, it is also a never-ending love story.

8. Glass could be the result of a meteorite impact. Now it gets spectacular! Researchers from the USA suspect that a 60 m large meteorite razed several settlements and the then metropolis of Tall el-Hammam in the Jordan Valley to the ground in 1650 BC. How did they come to this conclusion? By examining glass. They found large quantities of glass in the region, which consists of molten brick, ceramics and stone. Such materials can only melt at extreme temperatures of up to 2,500 °C. The researchers then investigated which natural event could have caused this and came to the conclusion that it could only have been a meteorite. The experience for the people in this region has been passed down to this day - it is the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

   

   Photo credits: Graham Holtshausen/unsplash

9. Light protection through colouring : Coloured glass is beautiful and practical. The darker the glass bottle, the better the light protection. This is especially important in the food industry, because too much light in drinks and food can affect the colour, shelf life, vitamins and even the taste of products.

10. Before this was known, colorless glass was long considered a luxury item and was imported from Venice. For us too, soulbottles were initially a luxurious product from Italy. Our first production facilities were located there because we could only order the small quantities that we sold in the beginning in Italy. Sweet memory.

Well, do you feel like getting to know a transparent partner for the adventures of everyday life? Then take a look around our soulful shop.

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our crystal-clear springs

Link to more glass facts
Link to information on proper disposal
Glass is liquid and solid at the same time – eh? Read everything again here
Link to further material facts
More information about the meteorite fact
More about the meteorite