Architectural glass percent of the world's flat glass is produced by the float glass process invented in the 1950s by Sir Alastair Pilkington of Pilkington Glass, in which molten glass is poured onto one end of a molten tin bath. The glass floats on the tin, and levels out as it spreads along the bath, giving a smooth face to both sides. The glass cools and slowly solidifies as it travels over the molten tin and leaves the tin bath in a continuous ribbon. The glass is then annealed by cooling in an oven called a lehr. The finished product has near-perfect
History of glass in sub-Saharan Africa be shaped, heated and cooled. The archaeological evidence of beadworking in Sub-Saharan Africa provides examples of both types.5 9 With melted glass working, beads found were generally formed by either a wound, drawn or moulded process. Wound glass beads, also known as Tubular, Cylindrical, Spherical or Melon-Shaped, were formed by folding molten glass around a metal rod called a mandrel. Once the glass had cooled slightly, the material was slipped off the mandrel and pinched and prodded until it reached a desired shape.9 Also known as Cane beads, Drawn beads were formed by dipping an iron blowpipe into molten glass