Glass \Glass\ (gl[.a]s), n. [OE. glas, gles, AS. gl[ae]s; akin
to D., G., Dan., & Sw. glas, Icel. glas, gler, Dan. glar; cf.
AS. gl[ae]r amber, L. glaesum. Cf. Glare, n., Glaze, v.
t.]
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1. A hard, brittle, translucent, and commonly transparent
substance, white or colored, having a conchoidal fracture,
and made by fusing together sand or silica with lime,
potash, soda, or lead oxide. It is used for window panes
and mirrors, for articles of table and culinary use, for
lenses, and various articles of ornament.
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Note: Glass is variously colored by the metallic oxides;
thus, manganese colors it violet; copper (cuprous),
red, or (cupric) green; cobalt, blue; uranium,
yellowish green or canary yellow; iron, green or brown;
gold, purple or red; tin, opaque white; chromium,
emerald green; antimony, yellow.
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2. (Chem.) Any substance having a peculiar glassy appearance,
and a conchoidal fracture, and usually produced by fusion.
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3. Anything made of glass. Especially:
(a) A looking-glass; a mirror.
(b) A vessel filled with running sand for measuring time;
an hourglass; and hence, the time in which such a
vessel is exhausted of its sand.
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She would not live
The running of one glass. --Shak.
(c) A drinking vessel; a tumbler; a goblet; hence, the
contents of such a vessel; especially; spirituous
liquors; as, he took a glass at dinner.
(d) An optical glass; a lens; a spyglass; -- in the
plural, spectacles; as, a pair of glasses; he wears
glasses.
(e) A weatherglass; a barometer.
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Note: Glass is much used adjectively or in combination; as,
glass maker, or glassmaker; glass making or
glassmaking; glass blower or glassblower, etc.
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Bohemian glass, Cut glass, etc. See under Bohemian,
Cut, etc.
Crown glass, a variety of glass, used for making the finest
plate or window glass, and consisting essentially of
silicate of soda or potash and lime, with no admixture of
lead; the convex half of an achromatic lens is composed of
crown glass; -- so called from a crownlike shape given it
in the process of blowing.
Crystal glass, or Flint glass. See Flint glass, in the
Vocabulary.
Cylinder glass, sheet glass made by blowing the glass in
the form of a cylinder which is then split longitudinally,
opened out, and flattened.
Glass of antimony, a vitreous oxide of antimony mixed with
sulphide.
Glass cloth, a woven fabric formed of glass fibers.
Glass coach, a coach superior to a hackney-coach, hired for
the day, or any short period, as a private carriage; -- so
called because originally private carriages alone had
glass windows. [Eng.] --Smart.
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Glass coaches are [allowed in English parks from
which ordinary hacks are excluded], meaning by this
term, which is never used in America, hired
carriages that do not go on stands. --J. F.
Cooper.
Glass cutter.
(a) One who cuts sheets of glass into sizes for window
panes, ets.
(b) One who shapes the surface of glass by grinding and
polishing.
(c) A tool, usually with a diamond at the point, for
cutting glass.
Glass cutting.
(a) The act or process of dividing glass, as sheets of
glass into panes with a diamond.
(b) The act or process of shaping the surface of glass by
appylying it to revolving wheels, upon which sand,
emery, and, afterwards, polishing powder, are applied;
especially of glass which is shaped into facets, tooth
ornaments, and the like. Glass having ornamental
scrolls, etc., cut upon it, is said to be engraved.
Glass metal, the fused material for making glass.
Glass painting, the art or process of producing decorative
effects in glass by painting it with enamel colors and
combining the pieces together with slender sash bars of
lead or other metal. In common parlance, glass painting
and glass staining (see Glass staining, below) are used
indifferently for all colored decorative work in windows,
and the like.
Glass paper, paper faced with pulvirezed glass, and used
for abrasive purposes.
Glass silk, fine threads of glass, wound, when in fusion,
on rapidly rotating heated cylinders.
Glass silvering, the process of transforming plate glass
into mirrors by coating it with a reflecting surface, a
deposit of silver, or a mercury amalgam.
Glass soap, or Glassmaker's soap, the black oxide of
manganese or other substances used by glass makers to take
away color from the materials for glass.
Glass staining, the art or practice of coloring glass in
its whole substance, or, in the case of certain colors, in
a superficial film only; also, decorative work in glass.
Cf. Glass painting.
Glass tears. See Rupert's drop.
Glass works, an establishment where glass is made.
Heavy glass, a heavy optical glass, consisting essentially
of a borosilicate of potash.
Millefiore glass. See Millefiore.
Plate glass, a fine kind of glass, cast in thick plates,
and flattened by heavy rollers, -- used for mirrors and
the best windows.
Pressed glass, glass articles formed in molds by pressure
when hot.
Soluble glass (Chem.), a silicate of sodium or potassium,
found in commerce as a white, glassy mass, a stony powder,
or dissolved as a viscous, sirupy liquid; -- used for
rendering fabrics incombustible, for hardening artificial
stone, etc.; -- called also water glass.
Spun glass, glass drawn into a thread while liquid.
Toughened glass, Tempered glass, glass finely tempered or
annealed, by a peculiar method of sudden cooling by
plunging while hot into oil, melted wax, or paraffine,
etc.; -- called also, from the name of the inventor of the
process, Bastie glass.
Water glass. (Chem.) See Soluble glass, above.
Window glass, glass in panes suitable for windows.
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