Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ChuckMcM 4679 days ago
It is entirely unclear if it was purely aesthetic. The article points out that the color changes are extremely sensitive to small changes in ratios of different elements in the containing fluid. It is entirely possible (although I agree it is a stretch) that the color would change if the drink it contain was contaminated with a poison.

So what was it? Was it a cool glass that changed color? Or a gift from the Gods that showed the true nature of its contents? If it is as sensitive to change as the article suggests I could see passing it off as the latter.

My question then is why I can't get a wine glass today made this way? :-)
2 comments
DLWormwood 4679 days ago
> My question then is why I can't get a wine glass today made this way? :-)

Likely for a similar reason that glass was mostly forgotten by the West during the early Middle Age and we completely lost how to make Damascus steel. Information was not preserved in a permanent multigenerational manner, either by intent or oversight, that we can still access today.

link
pbhjpbhj 4679 days ago
>why I can't get a wine glass today made this way //

How many thousands of dollars do you want to spend?

link
ChuckMcM 4679 days ago
Sort of depends on the effectiveness :-) But more seriously looking through my daughters old glaze catalogs there doesn't seem to be a glaze with a mix of gold and silver particulates, much less one with "exact proportions" hinted at in the article.

Given the effect of being different colors when different types of liquids were in the cup seems so novel, I found that surprising. I have no idea if I can write to the glazing company and ask them to mix me up a special glaze, but if it recreated this effect I am sure it would be popular with folks.

link
pbhjpbhj 4679 days ago
I think it may be because gold and silver melt too close to the temperature at which glazes are usually designed to flow. For gold the melting point is ~ 1060 deg C (Earthenware firing temperatures). I'd expect the gold might tend to coalesce rather than maintaining the sizes required to produce the effect in the OP.

Also I don't know about applying glazes to glass, only ceramics.

link