Broad sheet glass

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Among the Glass-Workers, an 1871 engraving by Harry Fenn

Broad sheet is a type of hand-blown glass. It was first made in Sussex in 1226.^[1]

Production

It is made by blowing molten glass into an elongated balloon shape with a blowpipe. Then, while the glass is still hot, the ends are cut off and the resulting cylinder is split with shears and flattened on an iron plate. The quality of broad sheet glass is not good, with many imperfections and mostly opaque. Due to the relatively small sizes blown, broad sheet was typically made into leadlights. The centerpiece was used for decoration where in places looking through the glass wasn't vital. If the piece was large, it was possible to see bubble tracks and strain lines.^[2]

Other methods for making hand-blown glass included blown plate glass, crown glass, polished plate glass and cylinder blown sheet glass. These methods of manufacture lasted at least until the end of the 19th Century. The early 20th century marks the move away from hand-blown to machine manufactured glass such as rolled plate glass, machine drawn cylinder sheet glass, flat drawn sheet glass, single and twin ground polished plate glass and float glass.

Broad sheet glass was first made in the UK in Sussex in 1226 CE. This glass was of poor quality and fairly opaque. Manufacture slowly decreased and ceased by the early 16th Century. French glass-makers and others were making broad sheet glass earlier than this.

References

v t e Glass forming techniques

Commercial techniques	Float glass process Blowing and pressing (containers) Extrusion / Drawing (fibers, glasswool) Drawing (optical fibers) Precision glass moulding Overflow downdraw method Pressing Casting Cutting Flame polishing Chemical polishing Diamond turning Rolling

Artistic and historic techniques	Beadmaking Blowing Blown plate Broad sheet Caneworking Crown glass Cylinder blown sheet Engraving Etching Fourcault process Fusing Lampworking Machine drawn cylinder sheet Millefiori Polished plate Slumping Stained glass fusing Stained glass production

Natural processes	Radiative processes Opal formation Sea glass Shock metamorphic glasses/Impactite Vitrified sand Volcanic glasses

See also	Glossary of glass art terms Glass recycling

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