An article about how in the GDR a state-owned firm developed a damn-near unbreakable glass. Of course as with most other industries in the GDR, the plant got bought out by western interests and stripped for parts. We’re told it’s because “socialism is inefficient” but this is a good example of how that’s bullshit - the commies made something of such high quality it was deemed “unmarketable” because retailers wouldn’t have more repeat purchases of people who broke their glasses. Not even because they were too expensive! As the article states these glasses were ubiquitous across the GDR.
The article is mostly free a brainworms except one odd digression where the author states that no one knew who the glass designers were because in the GDR they valued the collective over the contributions of the individual. Hey, without Googling, can you tell me who came up with idea for Yeti mugs? Or the Stanley cups? Just a weird point to make, like in any society people have any clue who is designing fucking drinkware.
no one knew who the glass designers were because in the GDR they valued the collective over the contributions of the individual
Total projection, nowadays for the most part you don't know who designed anything because the company owns the design.
In the case of the Superfest glass, the anonymity of the makers was also politically desired. The GDR’s regime preached solidarity and unity.
also
soviet satellite state
just
all aroundalso notice the "preached" as in they definitely didnt believe it, but they told the masses that, because socialism is when capitalism actually.
Right, Edward Bernays even talks about this shit. Preaching to the masses like they're children that needs to be told what to buy and "fostering" an image etc. And that's what marketing is today, at least in the west. It's insane how obsessed the liberal meritocracy is with looking professional, right decorum and all that jazz. Like media today is 90% packaging and 10% content at this point.
Just pure
People sign employment contracts saying the company owns any IP you develop whilst working for them, and I guess that's OK because it's not communism
i'm p sure germany had "unbreakable" glasses before/during the war too, cos my great grandma was given one (by allied soldiers who presumably looted it from a germany factory, but idk) when she was liberated from the camps, and brought it home through war torn central europe. eventually, my mother inherited it and i drank from it through my entire childhood. i even dropped it on a tile floor once or twice. it just bounced.
my mother still has it, it's still as good as it ever was.
it doesnt look like the ones in this article, so there must have been multiple manufacturers of durable glassware. or so i assume.
The actual science bit:
Glass Structure Research at the Central Institute for Inorganic Chemistry near Dresden. The material scientists there knew that when glass breaks, it is typically due to microscopic cracks in the material’s surface which form during the production process. Dramatically increasing the toughness of the glass surface was possible, they found, by replacing the smaller sodium ions in the glass with electronically charged potassium ions. Potassium ions need more space, pressing harder against neighbouring atoms and building up more tension that needs to be overcome for the microscopic cracks to get bigger.
The new crowd funded version: https://www.soulbottles.de/en Now with "everyone loves tap water!" in it
dont act like your hands are unbreakable or you are gonna have a bad time
We've had unbreakable glasses since the 1960's, eh. Materials science figured it out courtesy of needing such material for the Space Race.
