A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 10ml and 5 litres.
The history of glass can be traced back to at least 12,000 BC where glass coated objects have been found.
Millions of glass bottles are created worldwide every day. In the US, there is an average of at least two bottle-making factories in each county. It is a highly mechanized process, and bottles in use today are no longer hand blown as they were in the past.
A glass bottle is 100% recyclable with many new bottles containing glass which was created over 20 years ago. Less energy is used in recycling a glass bottle than creating the glass from raw materials, helping the environment.
When a glass bottle filled with liquid is dropped or subjected to shock, the water hammer effect may cause hydrodynamic stress, breaking the bottle.
Glass bottle manufacturing takes place over several stages. To briefly outline the processes from beginning to end: raw material, melting, forming, annealing, physical inspection, machine & laser inspection, secondary physical inspection, quality control, and finally packing.
Glass bottles are sometimes reinforced through lamination. Laminated safety glass is made by coating a glass surface with a layer of plastic. When a standard glass bottle is dropped, the glass breaks and scatters. When a laminated bottle is dropped, the glass still breaks but the layer of plastic remains intact, keeping the glass pieces together.
Once made, bottles may suffer from internal stresses as a result of unequal, or too rapid cooling. An annealing oven, or 'lehr' is used to cool glass containers slowly to prevent stress and make the bottle stronger.
Famous quotes containing the words glass and/or bottles:
“Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, “What will you have, sir?” And I said, “A glass of hemlock.””
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“For some, bottles of liquor gleam like the towers of Eldorado.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)