Abstract
Each glass factory must have its own equipment for production of glass, which is melted from a mixture of raw materials (glass batch). For this reason, glass melting furnaces belong to the basic technical equipment of glass factories.
Melting furnaces are one of the key areas of glass technology. Therefore, the overall progress in glass production depends especially on their development.
Development of glass melting furnaces was affected not only by skills of builders, better refractory materials and investments, but also by fuel, which was used for heating of furnaces (wood, coal, gas from a generator, fuel oil, natural gas). Melting furnaces where glass was melted using electric current began to be used later.
Big breakthrough in development of glass melting furnaces came in the second half of the 19th century. Friedrich August Siemens's inventions, the gas generator and the regenerative system, brought significant changes in thermal processes in furnaces during glass melting.
Other Siemens's invention, the glass tank furnace with continuous production, meant the emergence of the modern glass industry. The contribution of Friedrich August Siemens for glass melting is undisputed.
His inventions started the industrial revolution in glassmaking.