Wholesale glassware business is one of the fastest growing businesses in last three decades; Glass is a very enigmatic substance. It appears to be a solid material, but deep within, there is the random molecular structure of a liquid, not the geometrically aligned molecules found in crystalline solids. Its components are heated to nearly a liquid form and then cooled just shy of a crystalline state by using a precisely controlled annealing process (slow cooling) to avoid shattering.

 The three essential ingredients in commonly made glass are silica (sand) as the base component, soda (sodium bicarbonate) used to promote melting at around 2400 degrees Fahrenheit, and lime (Calcium oxide) to make the molten glass less soluble and easier to form. These are the primary component of what is known as “ soda-lime-silica glass”, customarily referred to as “soda-lime glass”. This is the least expensive to make and the easiest to work with, so it has remained a primary glass recipe for thousands of years. Though many forms of more durable glass are made today, as much as 90 percent of the glass being produced is still the economical, soda-lime form. This is good news for sea-glass collectors since it is also the type of glass most prone to degradation. Unfortunately, small amounts of stabilizers, such as aluminum and magnesium, are now added to help protect glass from moisture deterioration.

 While the common element in glass is silica, numerous other materials are used to produce different forms of glass. One popular variety was “leaded glass” composed of 30 percent lead oxide, which was added to produce an ultra clear and sturdy form of glass tableware commonly known as lead crystal.

 England’s George Ravens croft first discovered lead crystal back in 1674 and spent several years perfecting his formula. It rapidly became an international favorite for fine glassware.

 In cookware, “borosilicate glass” is extensively used, which is primarily silica but with 13 percent boric acid a small amount of aluminum added. Corning’s Pyrex brand and Kimble’s Kimax brand of consumer cookware are well-known forms of this shatterproof glass. According to Corning, one of the original reasons behind the development of borosilicate glass was to increase the heat resistance for railroad lanterns used for signaling trains to stop. Prior to this invention, the glass in the lantern could shatter when exposed to cold and wet weather.

 A more recent form of glass is called “fused silica”. It is made from raw quartz and extremely heat-resistant and clear. Italian on the remote Venetian island of Murano first used crushed quartz back in the 1460s to create an exceptionally clear glass they called cristallo, but it was considered too expensive for high volume production. Today, halogen lamps are made of fused silica. The remarkable quality of this advanced form of glass makes it less attractive to sea-glass collector because of its strong resistance to weathering.