Production of plate glass

In early days, plate glass was blown in the form of a circular or cylindrical tray.

This method which has been improved on considerably over time, was to be the ultimate method used in the 19th century.

It was on this activity that the prosperity of Charleroi was founded. Charleroi was an obscure 17th century stronghold which, because of its coal, metal and glass industry, became one of the most strategic centres of economic development of the 19th century.

After the First World War, mechanical drawing processes were to take the glassmaking world by storm, eliminating the need for artisan glassblowing and forcing glassworks to restructure.

The float-glass process would be the method used throughout the world after the sixties.