Jena glass (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Jenaer Glas'') is a shock- and heat-resistant glass used in scientific and technological applications, especially in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. The glass was invented by

Otto Schott Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German people, German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properti ...

in 1884 in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

, Germany, where he had established

Schott AG Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss foundation, Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's ...

with

Ernst Abbe Ernst Karl Abbe (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-owner of Ca ...

and

Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss (company), Zeiss. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted p ...

.Jena glass
at Britannica.com Jena glass is a

borosilicate Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with silicon dioxide, silica and boron trioxide as the main glass-forming constituents. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficient of thermal expansion, coefficients of thermal expansion ( ...

which, in early manufacture, contained added

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

sodium Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...

, and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

. It was a predecessor to other borosilicate glasses which came into wide use in the twentieth century, such as

Pyrex Pyrex (trademarked as ''PYREX'' and ''pyrex'') is a brand introduced by Corning Inc. in 1915, initially for a line of clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware. It was later expanded in the 1 ...

History

The "fireproof" utility

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

was produced and sold since the 1920s in

under the

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

''JENAer GLAS''. It was used both in

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

and in household appliances. Important designers participated in the shaping of these products since the 1920s:

Gerhard Marcks Gerhard Marcks (18 February 1889 – 13 November 1981) was a German artist, known primarily as a sculptor, but who is also known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics. Early life Marcks was born in Berlin, where, at the age of 18, ...

, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Heinrich Löffelhardt, Bruno Mauder, Ilse Decho and Hans Merz. One of the Bauhaus artist

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by Constructivism (art), con ...

advertising campaign initiated in the 1930s contributed significantly to its success. In the GDR, Jena glass was a sought-after export item to the

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

(Non-Socialist Economic Territory) and a valuable

foreign exchange The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. By trading volume, it i ...

earner. In mid-2005,

ceased production of Jena glass at the company's founding site in Jena, after several million marks had been invested in a new production line in the 1990s. The melting furnace was drained and shut down on April 29, 2005. At the end of May 2005, post-processing was closed.''Accompaniment on a difficult path''. In: ''SCHOTT IN JENA - employee newspaper of SCHOTT JENAer GLAS GmbH''. June/July 2005, p. 11. The ''Jenaer Glas'' brand remained in the possession of the company, and the license was granted to Zwiesel Kristallglas AG on January 1, 2006, which has since marketed products in the household goods segment under the brand. Csonka és Fiai Ltd. had been a partner of SCHOTT Jenaer Glas GmbH in the manufacture of heat-resistant glass products since 1996. After Schott stopped manufacturing household glassware, Csonka founded Trendglas Jena GmbH with the former head of the household glassware department of the Jena glassworks, and since 2005 has been continuing the production of heat-resistant household glassware on the original molds and machines of the Jena glassworks under the Trendglas Jena brand. Thus, the company became one of the largest manufacturers of heat-resistant glass products in Europe.

Products

The main products of Jenaer Glas are laboratory glassware and glass tableware. Typical examples of lab glassware are fireproof beakers and tumblers, and bottles with glass or

teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene, and has numerous applications because it is chemically inert. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemours, a spin-off from ...

-coated lids. Glassware is preferred for many uses since it is easy to clean, and there is no risk of contaminants like plasticizers. This virtue has also been transferred to modern consumer products like

sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

water bottles and double-walled coffee takeaway cups. Glass tableware and cookware offers a wide range, from classical products like teapots and mugs, to casserole dishes, cake pans and whole dining services. The temperature-resistant dishes can be used to cook, bake, serve the food, and freeze leftovers. Jenaer Glas 01

References

{{reflist Glass types German inventions