Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Alastair Pilkington's process lets molten glass spread on a metal bath, giving flat sheets with no grinding needed. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a technology fact?

Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Float glass is poured onto molten tin

Alastair Pilkington's process lets molten glass spread on a metal bath, giving flat sheets with no grinding needed Glass floats on tin because it is less dense, and surface tension pulls it into a smooth sheet of even thickness as it cools. Before the process, flat glass had to be ground and polished, which was slow and costly. Pilkington announced the method in 1959 and licensed it worldwide, and most window glass is still made this way. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: materials, glass, manufacturing

Float glass is poured onto molten tin: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Alastair Pilkington's process lets molten glass spread on a metal bath, giving flat sheets with no grinding needed. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.