Glass

Ether 3:1; “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass…”

A couple of things should be noted for this section just to make sure we are fair when looking at this subject.

First, according to the website of www.inventors.about.com it says that glass is thought to have been first created around 3,000 BC during the Bronze Age (3300 – 1200 BC).

Secondly, because we’re dealing with a type of window glass for this particular study, the information I found for this invention took place during the Imperial Period (44 BC).  The website of Met Museum says this about window glass;

“Glass windowpanes were first made in the early imperial period, and used most prominently in the public baths to prevent drafts. Because window glass in Rome was intended to provide insulation and security, rather than illumination or as a way of viewing the world outside, little, if any, attention was paid to making it perfectly transparent or of even thickness. Window glass could be either cast or blown.”  (13)

So we see from what the Met Museum reports there is little to no chance that windows were readily available for ships or boats at the time of the Jaredites which supposedly dates to 2,700 BC to 600 BC.  The main story of the Jaredites can be found in the book of Ether.

American glass has an interesting story if you’re so inclined to read a synopsis of that!  The contributor to this site is Steve W. Martin, Ph.D., Professor of Materials, Science and Engineering, Iowa State University.  (14)

In part this is what Dr. Martin reports on this site;

“Early American glass. The first factory in what is now the United States was a glass plant built at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. The venture failed within a year because of a famine that took the lives of many colonists. The Jamestown colonists tried glassmaking again in 1621, but an Indian attack in 1622 and the scarcity of workers ended this attempt in 1624. The industry was reestablished in America in 1739, when Caspar Wistar built a glassmaking plant in what is now Salem County, New Jersey. This plant operated until 1780.”

13 – http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rgls/hd_rgls.htm

Citation for this page

Trentinella, Rosemarie. “Roman Glass”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rgls/hd_rgls.htm (October 2003)

14 – http://www.texasglass.com/glass_facts/history_of_Glass.htm