What is the difference between crystal and glass: 7 ways to understand the difference

In previous years, the presence and quantity of festive tableware was a kind of indicator of material well-being - glasses and glasses were the pride of housewives, placed in sideboards and cupboards with transparent doors. Soviet people knew perfectly well the difference between crystal and glass, and could understand the difference, sometimes without even touching the object. But most modern people cannot do this. Meanwhile, it is quite simple to distinguish crystal dishes from glass - just carefully examine the product, paying attention to its transparency, thickness, weight and several other criteria.

How to distinguish crystal from glass

To distinguish crystal from glass, it is not necessary to conduct experiments in laboratory conditions. You can notice the difference in the store, without having any special products on hand. It is enough to pay attention to the following characteristics.

Product appearance

One of the components of crystal is lead oxide. This substance contributes to the high ductility of the material. Therefore, crystal products are often more elegant and have very thin walls, which glass, which has less “flexibility,” cannot have.

Lead additives also make it possible to use a variety of crystal processing methods. Thus, glasses and vases are often decorated with skillful, almost “jewelry” engraved designs. And the stoppers from crystal decanters are cut like precious stones. It is impossible to do such delicate work on glass, and the decor of such products is usually simpler, or even absent altogether.

Transparency

Another difference that lead oxide has given to crystal is its high transparency and uniformity. Moreover, the more of this component in the material, the higher the indicated indicators.

If you look at the products against the light, there will be no cloudiness, inclusions, bubbles or other defects in the crystal. Glass, on the other hand, has a less uniform structure, and the number of “flaws” depends on its type and quality.

Refraction of rays

If you bring a crystal object to any light source, it will “sparkle” with rainbow colors. Moreover, the main shade will be bluish-violet. This effect is achieved again due to lead oxide. It is because of these qualities that crystal is often used in the manufacture of jewelry and chandeliers.

Glass in the light of sunlight or artificial rays does not “play” with colorful reflections. And its shade will be greenish and matte.

Visual effects

Another quality that distinguishes crystal from glass is the ability to create “special effects”. If you look through a crystal product at surrounding objects, the image will split in two. This occurs due to the large refraction angle.

Glass in a similar situation will simply magnify objects a little, and sometimes may slightly distort them. But there will be no bifurcation.

Thermal conductivity

According to this criterion, glass is superior to crystal. It has high thermal conductivity, and if you take a glass object in your hands, it will quickly “adjust” to body temperature.

Crystal products conduct heat much worse. Even after prolonged contact with the skin, they remain cool.

"Voice" of the material

The phrase “crystal ringing” is probably familiar to everyone. Indeed, if you tap a crystal piece with your fingernail or lightly touch one glass to another, a melodic, high-pitched sound will be heard. And the more lead in the composition, the longer and cleaner it will be.

If the item does not “sing”, there are 2 options. Either a crack has formed on the crystal, breaking the sound chain, or the product is made of glass. Massive crystal specimens with thick walls can also be “silent”.

Weight and strength

If you weigh (even in the palm of your hand) identical objects made of crystal and glass, the first will turn out to be noticeably heavier. At the same time, scratches and clouding do not form on crystal products, even with active use, and “traces of time” are always visible on glass products.

In addition, crystal, even thin, is more difficult to break. And if this happens, the object will shatter into many small fragments, while a vase or rosette for jam made of glass will fall apart into several pieces.

Crystal

The material gets its name from the Greek word for ice, in analogy with rock crystal. It is a type of glass and contains at least 24% lead oxide.

The first mentions of the addition of this component date back to the era of the birth of glassmaking in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.But in a form close to the modern one, crystal was first obtained only in 1676 by the English master George Ravenscroft.

Modern manufacturers subject the material to various processing methods - cutting, engraving, grinding and carving. It is used both in the creation of jewelry and in the manufacture of high-quality festive tableware and souvenirs.

Today in Russia there are 3 large factories that produce crystal objects - Dyatkovsky, Gusevsky (Gus-Khrustalny) and Bakhmetyevsky.

Glass

Glass is an almost universal material, known since ancient times and used in various spheres of human life. It also exists in its natural form, in the form of minerals, but is more often a product of glass making.

Historians have not come to a consensus regarding the birthplace of this craft. Versions have been put forward about its origins in Egypt, Phenicia, Africa, Mesopotamia, and the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean. Data on the “age” of glass making is also inaccurate, but here scientists are unanimous - about 6 thousand years ago.

The origin of the name differs in different languages. European peoples for the most part use a form derived from the Latin "vitrum", and the Slavs from the East Germanic "stikls".

For a long time, glass production was of a craft nature, and the products were shaped by blowing. Smooth glass was produced using the “cylinder” method. First, the specified shape was blown, and then the material was cut and straightened. And only at the beginning of the 20th century an engineer from Belgium invented a method of mechanical production.

Today glass is produced on an industrial scale.Depending on the composition, they differ in quality and characteristics, and can also be transparent, matte, bleached or colored.

The statement that glass products are cheaper than crystal products is not always true. In most cases this is true, but individual handmade pieces made from glass can be an order of magnitude more expensive than their crystal counterparts.