Glass

It is grievously to be lamented that much of the labour of this invaluable artist was absolutely wasted, from the impossibility of procuring flint glass capable of forming an object glass at all; lens after lens having been rejected by him before one could be found of the requisite purity, even of  moderate aperture.

— Obituary for Charles Tulley in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, 5, 386, 1833.

There arrived certain merchants in a ship laden with nitre, in the mouth of this river, and being landed, minded to seethe their victuals upon the shore and the very sands: but for that they wanted other stones, to serve as trivets to bear up their pans and cauldrons over the fire, they made shift with certain pieces of sal-nitre out of the ship, to support the said pans, and so made fire underneath: which being once afire among the sand and gravel of the shore, they might perceive a certain clear liquor run from the fire in very streams, and hereupon they say came the first invention of making glass.
— Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-79) The Natural History, translated by Philemon Holland.

It is said that during the reign of Tiberius the Emperor, there was devised a certain temper of glass, which made it pliable and flexible to wind and turn without breaking: but the artificer who devised this was put down, and his work house, for fear lest vessels made of such glass should take away the credit from the rich plate of brass, silver, and gold, and make them of no price …
— Gaius Plinius Secundus (CE 23 – 79) The Natural History, translated by Philemon Holland.

You will find an index to this blog at the foot of this link. Please be patient: I am pedalling as fast as I can.