I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
There are many kind of glasses
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
It's true if you've silica sand (very common), but there are feldspar sand

general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?
You can try I think so
Kris

Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

Kris

Yes, although the impurities would be uncontrolled. Using "soda" with the

Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that? In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

Kris

You can make a very primitive glass fairly easily from a recipe. (or not)

Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

"Kris" <Kris7@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:BB8DD833.B093%Kris7@softhome.net...
Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

Kris

You can make a very primitive glass fairly easily from a recipe. (or not)
sand + soda ash + limestone+borax .... etc. etc.
If you are making a large piece - you must anneal it correctly to remove the
residual stress.
If the block is not annealed properly - it can blow up in your face at -
and I mean blow up! - at any time - without warning!
You'll be picking bits of glass out of your butt for quite a while (at least
the pieces the folks at the ER didn't find)! - even small pieces can pack a
punch!
If this is an art project - Yes people work with glass all the time - but
you should know what you are doing to avoid injury.
If this is for commercial uses - Forget it - modern glass smelters are very
efficient and capital intensive. They typically use O2 enriched burners,
huge heat exchangers, special refractories, bring raw materials in by the
train car load, etc. etc...............
Good Luck
Gregg

The really kewl ones use platinum electrodes and massive electric
currents to heat molten glass resistively. It is a wonderfully mad
idea. You are very right about cooling big blocks of soda lime. If
it is not annealed it can be deadly. Look at it between crossed
polarizers. If you see strain you have a potential bomb. Pyrex is
more forgiving. Anneal it.

"Kris" <Kris7@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:BB8DD833.B093%Kris7@softhome.net...
Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low quality
glass block?

When the first Survivor show was on television, I wondered how I would
survive on a deserted island. Specifically, how could I create a means of
obtaining fresh water in the dry season. Being an impractical lab rat, I
immediately thought of making a distillation plant out of glass, using sea
water. So where to get the glass? I'm not sure how well this would work,
but I thought of grinding seashells (for calcium) and mixing it with the
sand and, maybe, a little sea salt. How do you think this would work? Any
other ideas?

When the first Survivor show was on television, I wondered how I would
survive on a deserted island. Specifically, how could I create a means of
obtaining fresh water in the dry season. Being an impractical lab rat, I
immediately thought of making a distillation plant out of glass, using sea
water. So where to get the glass? I'm not sure how well this would work,
but I thought of grinding seashells (for calcium) and mixing it with the
sand and, maybe, a little sea salt. How do you think this would work?
Any
other ideas?

"Brendan Hall" <bhall@minmet.uq.edu.au> wrote in message
news:bkdvkr$fk1$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au...

When the first Survivor show was on television, I wondered how I would
survive on a deserted island. Specifically, how could I create a means
of
obtaining fresh water in the dry season. Being an impractical lab rat,
I
immediately thought of making a distillation plant out of glass, using
sea
water. So where to get the glass? I'm not sure how well this would
work,
but I thought of grinding seashells (for calcium) and mixing it with the
sand and, maybe, a little sea salt. How do you think this would work?
Any
other ideas?

Try a lot of sea salt. Roughly speaking you need 75 sand, 20 seashells,
and
about 30 salt, all dry weights.

Next you need to find a source of clay, to build the furnace and to make
the
pot in which to melt the glass. Presumably you have plenty of wood to fire
the furnace.

Last of all, you will need an iron or steel tube to gather and blow the
glass to make your tubing. Oh, and another person to hold the other end of
the glass tube as you walk away from him to draw it.
--
Terry Harper
http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/

That sounds like a Peace Corps project I heard about.
They dumped a couple of ceramic engineers in god knows where and their job
was to start a local ceramics (pots and such) and glass industry (cottage
industry) from nothing but the raw materials in the region. The baked
primitive brick in ground kilns (dig a hole - start a fire with charcoal -
cover it up) and they used the brick to build a kiln so they could make
real
refractory brick.
The real refractory brick was used to make a higher temperature kiln. The
kilns were used to produce good earthen ware. They also smelted some
glass
(frit) for the glazes (I guess they had trouble developing a raw material
glaze)
sounds like a fun project.

Brendan Hall wrote:

"Kris" <Kris7@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:BB8DD833.B093%Kris7@softhome.net...
Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon
dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is
that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low
quality
glass block?

When the first Survivor show was on television, I wondered how I would
survive on a deserted island. Specifically, how could I create a means
of
obtaining fresh water in the dry season. Being an impractical lab rat,
I
immediately thought of making a distillation plant out of glass, using
sea
water. So where to get the glass? I'm not sure how well this would
work,
but I thought of grinding seashells (for calcium) and mixing it with the
sand and, maybe, a little sea salt. How do you think this would work?
Any
other ideas?

You scoop up water from land drainage and stagnant pools. Sterilizing
it is left as an exercise for the alert reader.

"Uncle Al" <UncleAl0@hate.spam.net> wrote in message
news:3F6B1C97.CE6D78A3@hate.spam.net...
Brendan Hall wrote:

"Kris" <Kris7@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:BB8DD833.B093%Kris7@softhome.net...
Hello,

I know that the major component of most types of glass is silicon
dioxide.
I've heard that sand is essentially silicon dioxide. How true is
that?
In
general would it be possible to melt regular sand to produce a low
quality
glass block?

When the first Survivor show was on television, I wondered how I would
survive on a deserted island. Specifically, how could I create a means
of
obtaining fresh water in the dry season. Being an impractical lab rat,
I
immediately thought of making a distillation plant out of glass, using
sea
water. So where to get the glass? I'm not sure how well this would
work,
but I thought of grinding seashells (for calcium) and mixing it with the
sand and, maybe, a little sea salt. How do you think this would work?
Any
other ideas?

You scoop up water from land drainage and stagnant pools. Sterilizing
it is left as an exercise for the alert reader.

Burn coconut husks then cover them with sand when the fire is really going.
I heard somewhere that a lack of oxygen while burning creates activated
charcaol. This can then be used as a filter. But will this filter salt?
Maybe this method is better than distillation, but may require an unlimited
number of trees.