Tuesday, December 14, 2010

As a result of some dialogue about Rouge Flambé being made out of “Flint” glass, Tom Dimitroff of Corning has a correction.

In a recent item, Mr. Bly wrote the following.

It will be made from lead glass instead of flint glass like Rouge Flambé.

I do this only to help future understandings. Obviously this statement means that lead glass and flint glass are two different glasses. Not so.

Actually Flint Glass is a misnomer for lead glass. In other words they are the same glass. When lead glass was developed first in England, ground flint was substituted for Venetian pebbles as a source of silica which, of course is necessary in making glass. As time went on sand replaced the flint, but the term flint glass continued meaning lead glass.

Rouge Flambé is made of soda-lime glass not flint or lead glass.

This is explained in more detail in An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass by Harold Newman. Just look up Flint Glass.

Hope this helps,

Tom Dimitroff

Any opinions expressed by participants to the Gazette are the opinions of the authors and are not endorsed by or the opinions of the Carder Steuben Club.