The Use of Scientific Theory in Industry (Presidential Address)

JSGT 1948 V32 T173-T188

Today I will try to review some of the problems relating to the manufacture of glass in tank furnaces. The sequence of operations involved in filling a quantity of cold, imperfectly mixed powdered material of non-uniform grading on to the surface of previously partially melted batch and heating this by radiation and convection from the flame given by a variable fuel is sufficiently complex to make one pause. In addition, however, the molten glass is held in a refractory bath which is itself dissolving, although fortunately rather slowly, and the glass is finally needed to be free from bubbles, undesired colour, and variations in chemical composition; so the problem is indeed formidable.

W. M. Hampton