nadsat » Glass

Things I never knew I needed

Zachary — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:20:41 +0000

A new series on Nadsat inspired by a thread on Style Forum, “Things I never knew I needed” (but now desperately need). The first installment, decorative bottles for bathroom items:

I like a neat bathroom even though I barely claim mine as such. A neat bathroom used to mean empty to me, nothing on the counter tops, but that that’s not how people live. If you are going to have things sitting out on your counter, why not make it look nice? I don’t want to have my giant bottle of mouthwash sitting out on the counter, but it is something I reach for everyday, so why not have nice, dedicated container? Asprin, cotton swabs, vitamins, etc… there are any number of things.

The jars above are from Design Within Reach and while there are almost certainly cheaper options out there, these are the first ones I noticed. The image here is a medicine cabinet from an early time before plastic bottles or a nice hotel where even the cotton swabs have their own leaded glass jar.

Excessive? Of course. Necessary? Absolutely not. Welcome to “Things I never knew I need.”

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Compact Fluorescents

Zachary — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:37:00 +0000

Compact Fluorescents are a hot topic these days. Australia has mandated their use and there has been some talk of similar laws in the US (I’m looking at you, California). What’s the big deal with them? They last longer and use less energy than conventional incandescent bulbs. The negative? They cost significantly more. While your typical incandescent bulb is typically less than a dollar for a common wattage, a compact fluorescent can cost as much as $2 or $3.

So while they’re a pretty big investment, they offer power savings and therefore save money on your electric bill. The question is how long will it take for this pay off in power savings to account for the extra expense of the bulbs? Well it might not be as long as you think, compact fluorescents also last quite a bit longer than incandescent bulbs. Another benefit is they put off less heat than incandescents. Less heat is always better when it comes to cooling a house in Georgia.

The amount of time it would take for the compact fluorescent investment to pay off can vary a lot home to home. Low Impact Living estimates about 1.5yrs on average for a small home. In the world of green living and green lifestyles where an extra cost with little to no economic reward is usually assumed this is quite good. The typical compact fluorescent bulb promises to save anywhere from 40 to 80 kw/hours per year.

It all depends on how big of an initial investment you are willing to make and how long you are willing to wait to see some net savings. Compact fluorescents are an incredibly easy “green” solution though. If you can change a light bulb you can do the upgrade. I have heard some complaints of CF’s not fitting in certain lamps or fixtures but I have yet to come across this. CF’s are getting smaller with each new generation and I have even seen some shaped like the classic light bulb.

Another tip for those that rent like myself. If you want to use CF’s but are worried about not feeling the impact due to a short lease, consider your new bulbs an investment. Take them with you when you move and reinstall the old incandescents. Yes CF’s cost more but because of this they should not be considered disposable like incandescents.

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Tin Alloys and Float Glass

Zachary — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:04:29 +0000

Tin (chemical symbol Sn) typically is not thought of as a particularly useful metal and neither are its alloys. Tin has largely been replaced by aluminum in the two areas people knew it best, cans and foil. Some still refer to the updated aluminum versions as tin. So is tin used for anything anymore?

First let’s look at some of the properties of tin. Tin has a low melting point, 505 K. For reference, aluminum melts at roughly 933 K and carbon steel at roughly 1800 K. This low melt point is tin’s biggest weakness compared to structural metals but it is also its more important characteristic. Liquid tin does not boil until 2900 K. It also has a very low viscosity and wets the surface of most materials.

Given the characteristics described above it makes sense that most Sn-alloys are used for solders. Tin-lead (Sn-Pb) alloys have historically been solder but more environmentally friendly options such as Sn-Ag-Cu (tin-silver-copper) alloys do exist and are becoming more widespread.

Ok, so solder and foil aren’t that interesting, I know. Remember what I said earlier about tin’s high boiling point and low viscosity? Well, the surface of molten tin is also perfectly flat. Using these properties, molten tin can be used to create large, flat sheets of glass, called “float glass”.

Imagine a continuous river of molten tin, now pour molten glass onto the tin. Tin is a good head conductor and it has a perfectly flat surface so it conducts the heat quickly and uniformly allowing for a perfectly flat piece of glass with a uniform thickness to form on the molten tin surface. Pretty cool, right?

The idea of float glass has been around for awhile but it was not successfully implemented commercially until the 1950s. Sir Alastair Pilkington, a British engineer, gets the credit for the process that is still used to produce about 90% of flat glass today. There are a few other details to the process but the basics of it are pretty simple. Thickness can range from around 0.1″ to 0.6″ so the float glass process can be used for a wide range of large, flat glass panels.

Think about it the next time you go window shopping. How were those large, flat windows manufacturing? Odds are it was using the float glass process.

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