Dab tsi yog Kev Tshawb Fawb ntawm iav tshuab?
It's all around you every day, but you see right through it. What are we talking about? Glass, of course!
You might wake up and look out your bedroom window to check on the world around you. You probably look in a mirror to brush your hair. Did you look through car or bus windows on your way to school?
But those aren't the only experiences you probably have with glass. Did you drink milk out of a glass during breakfast? Maybe you ate cereal out of a glass bowl. If you took a few minutes to look around your home or school, you'd probably see dozens of things made of this material.
Much of the glass you see is flat. For example, windows and mirrors are usually simple, flat pieces of glass. Other types take on different shapes. Can you look around and find any examples of glass that are curved, shaped, and even multi-colored?
Did you ever stop to WONDER about how people shape glass? Any kid who has ever broken a window or a glass bowl knows how fragile it can be. You can't just take a glass window and bend it, because it will break. How do we get all those glass items that come in so many different shapes and sizes, then?
Glass is a unique, versatile material that can be shaped in many different ways to make a wide variety of products. Those finished products are obviously quite solid, even if they're fragile. Many of them, though, start out as a substance that looks more like a liquid!
Ntau yam khoom siv iav tshwj xeeb tshaj plaws uas koj yuav pom yog qhov kawg ntawm cov txheej txheem kos duab hu ua glassblowing. Kev kos duab ntawm glassblowing tau nyob ib puag ncig ntev, ntev. Ntev npaum li cas? Cov keeb kwm tuaj yeem taug qab txhua txoj kev rov qab mus rau Roman faj tim teb chaws. Qhov tseeb, nws yog thawj xyoo pua BCE Syrians uas feem ntau tau txais credit. Lawv pom tias iav tuaj yeem raug tshuab los ntawm qhov qhib kawg ntawm lub raj hollow thiab tig mus rau txhua hom sib txawv.
Although glass is a solid, it's an amorphous solid. That means it's rigid but has a molecular structure that's random like a liquid. It's this interesting structure that makes glass transparent.
Glass is made up of silica, which is basically a high-quality type of sand. Other materials, such as metals and metal oxides, are added to silica to lower the melting point of the mixture. Other key ingredients often found in glass include soda (sodium dioxide) and lime (calcium oxide).
Glassblowers mix these ingredients to make a batch of glass, which they will melt in a furnace in their workshop (called a hot shop). The batch is heated in a pot called a crucible to an initial temperature of over 2,000º F.
Thaum lub iav tuaj yeem raug tshuab los ntawm ib tus neeg ib leeg, nws yog ib txoj haujlwm nyuaj uas feem ntau yog ib pab neeg ua haujlwm zoo tshaj plaws. Cov hlau lead glassblower hu ua gaffer. Lub gaffer siv lub tshuab raj (ib lub raj hollow ua los ntawm cov hlau los yog hlau uas feem ntau yog li plaub taw ntev) mus rau hauv lub crucible los npog qhov kawg nrog lub blob ntawm molten iav.
Lub gaffer ces tshuab mus rau hauv lub blowpipe los tsim ib tug npuas nyob rau hauv lub molten iav. Nyob ntawm seb yam khoom twg gaffer xav ua, qhov loj, tiaj tus nto hu ua marver tuaj yeem siv los ua lub khob. Lwm yam cuab yeej, nrog rau cov blocks, jacks, tshav kub shields, thiab paddles pab lub gaffer thiab nws pab neeg tsim lub molten iav rau hauv cov khoom zaum kawg xav tau.
Raws li cov iav tau zoo li, nws feem ntau txias mus rau qhov chaw uas nws ua tsis tau. Thaum qhov ntawd tshwm sim, lub khob yuav tsum muab tso rau hauv lub qhov cub thib ob (hu ua lub koob meej lub qhov) kom rov ua kom nws rov qab mus rau qhov chaw uas nws tau hloov pauv tau yooj yim dua.
When the glass product is finished, it must be cooled carefully. A third furnace, called an annealer, is used to slowly cool the glass product to the point where it becomes a sturdy solid that's still transparent. If glass is cooled too quickly, it can crystallize and lose its transparency while also becoming extremely fragile and subject to breaking easily.
Koj puas xav sim glassblowing ib hnub? Nws yog txheej txheem kos duab uas ntau tus neeg nyiam. Nrog rau kev xyaum, koj tuaj yeem siv koj tus kheej tes ua iav hauv tsev ib hnub!
