Recent Developments in Ceramics and Glass
A Symposium presented before the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry at the 723rd Meeting of the ACS, los Angeles, Calif. WHAT’S NEW IN GLASS
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ENGINEERING FOR INCREASED GLASS PRODUCTION R. W. Shufe and 8. W. King . , , .
ELECTRON MICROSCOPE INVESTIGATION OF GLASS Alberf F. Prebus and John W. Michener
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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN RADIATIONSENSITIVE GLASSES S. D. Sfookey . . . . . . . . . .
STATISTICAL THEORIES AS APPLIED TO THE GLASSY STATE 0.I. Anderson and 0. A. Sfuart , . .
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Alexander Silverman
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COMMERCIAL GLASS
A. K. Lyle.
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SOME EFFECTS OF HIGH ENERGY RADIATION ON GLASS Norberf 1. Kreidl . . . . . . . . . .
T e c h n i c a l progress goes in cycles. First one field then another forges ahead. The period of a cycle seems to be about 20 years, and having run its course in one field, that activity is superseded by development in another area. The rise of the civil engineer toolc place from 1860 to 1880, when America’s railroads were being built and the nation’s transportation was being consolidated. The eighties and nineties saw the ascendancy of the mechanical engineer, with the installation and application of steam, and later internal combustion, power. This era marked the beginning of our present-day factory system; it also embraced the groundwork for the phenomenal development of automotive transportation which developed into full stature during the score of years that followed. The first 20 years of the present century saw the rise of the electrical industry and the development of modern generation, distribution, and power utilization systems. Marked progress was also made in telephonic communications, both wired and wireless. During the 20 years that followed World War I the great American chemical indusJanuary 1954
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APPLICATION OF GLASS FIBERS IN FILTRATION PROCESSES Clayfon A. Smuckerand WaylandC. Marlow, Jr.
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COEXISTING STRUCTURES IN VITREOUS SILICA Clarence I. Babcock, Stephen W. Barber, and Kasimir Faians . . . . . . . . . . . .
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EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL GLASS PIPING Errol B. Shand . . . . . . . . . . .
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REFRACTORY MATERIALS FOR GAS COMBUSTION EQUIPMENT Emif Blaha
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CERAMICS FOR NUCLEAR POWER APPLICATIONS I. R. McCreight , , , , , ,
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try was established. A t this time chemists and chemical engineers occupied the center of the stage. In 1954 we are about two thirds through a fifth 20-year period, which I feel may well be called the era of specialized materials. Herein considerable progress has been, and is being made by metallurgists, chemists, and ceramists in developing new and unusual materials of fabrication and construction. Metallurgists, ceramists, and chemists are all brothers under the skin because their individual sciences are founded upon chemistry, and they are all familiar with the periodic system. In this era of specialized materials, the industries based on products made from metallic oxides have undergone a renaissance. Products have been re-evaluated, and renewed interest has arisen in materials that possess such desirable characteristics as widespread availability, inherent cheapness, ease of fabrication, chemical resistance, including resistance to oxidation, fireproofness, high temperature resistance, high tensile strength, low density, phenomenal optical qualities, including transparency, hardness, and desirable elec-
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trical characteristics. These properties, supported by new research techniques and equipment and by engineering advancements available for production, have opened new fields for ceramic products and created renewed interest in every phase of the industry. GLASS
Known and utilized long before the Christian era, glass was employed chiefly as a container, something to drink out of, to see through, or to keep out the weather; this was true through the first third of the current century. But i t has now become a true engineering material, possessing remarkable properties, and it is capable of servingmankind in a wide range of engineering applications. Much of this has come about through the development of the glass fiber industry. CERAMIC WARE
A notable development in the broad field of clay ceramics has resulted from the activities of the Structural Clay Products Association Research Laboratories. Their research has been largely economic and of an industrial engineering rather than a chemical character. Out of it have come at least three things-improved methods of brick wall construction, an improved size and shape for building bricks, and a modified system for laying them up; these developments will result in better walls at lower cost and should restore brick construction to the place it ought to occupy in the nation’s building programs. Equally important developments have been made in such widely different materials as ceramic bodies possessing low dielectric loss, high thermal conductivity, negative thermal expansion, high thermal shock resistance, and high temperature resistance. Improved fluxes have been developed for whiteware, and some improvement has
been shown in the methods for purifying and processing clays. REFRACTORIES
During the past 10 years, very worth-while progress has been made in this field. There is constant demand on the part of glass manufacturers, metallurgists, and manufacturers of ovens, kilns, and steam boilers for refractories that will give improved service at increasingly higher temperatures. The refractories which have been developed for these purposes are of two general types-on the one hand, pure oxides, and on the other, various carbides bonded with oxides and other materials. The oxides of aluminum, beryllium, chromium, magnesium, thorium. and zirconium, processed by various highly technical methods, are the ones chiefly used. The period following the end of World War I1 has also seen the development and introduction of the completely automatic glass tank. With automatic controls for draft, temperature, fuel-air ratio, and glass level, this development should prove an assist to the improved refractories in increasing the life of tanks and furnaces beyond that heretofore experienced, CERMETS
The advent of modern jet engines has created the need for materials capable of exhibiting high strengths at inordinately high temperatures. A new class of materials, the cermets, has come into being. These are, in general, highly refractory oxides bonded together with heat-resisting metals. An example is aluminum oxide bonded with chromium. These give great promise of fulfilling the rigid strength-temperature conditions just mentioned. Their development is being pushed with vigor.
A. W. DAVISON
Cermets and Tubing Illustrate Recent Industrial Applications of Ceramics and Glass
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