Glass and its history of service

The review considers various examples of the interactions between glass science and technology on the one hand and electrical and electronic engineering on the other. The historical introduction leads up to the development of special glasses, mainly to meet the needs of lens designers, at the end of the nineteenth century. An elementary account is given of glass formation, of the structure of glasses and of controlled nucleation and crystallisation to make glass ceramics. Most of the particular applications of glass considered are recent developments. They include low-expansion glass ceramics for laser gyroscopes, photosensitive glasses, glasses for optical communication fibres, glasses as electrolytes in high temperature batteries, semiconducting glass switches, magnetic glasses, new sealing techniques, and the use of glass as a substrate. Sufficient references are given to make it possible for the reader to follow up any of these topics in more detail.