Hohenstein-Ernstthal ( German pronunciation: [ˈhoːənˌʃtaɪ̯n ˈɛʁnstˌtaːl] ) is a town in the Zwickau rural district, Saxony , Germany . The towns of Hohenstein and Ernstthal were united in 1898, and the town is either known by its hyphenated form, or simply called Hohenstein.
134-592: The town grew in the 15th century after silver mines were established nearby. Ernstthal was named in honor of August Ernst von Schoenburg. Physicist Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert and inventor Christoph Gottlieb Schröter were born in Hohenstein. The writer Karl May was born in Ernstthal. The house of his birth is a museum. Furthermore, Hohenstein-Ernstthal is especially famous for the Sachsenring racing circuit. In
268-486: A bullet cast from silver is often supposed in such folklore the only weapon that is effective against a werewolf , witch , or other monsters . From this the idiom of a silver bullet developed into figuratively referring to any simple solution with very high effectiveness or almost miraculous results, as in the widely discussed software engineering paper " No Silver Bullet ." Other powers attributed to silver include detection of poison and facilitation of passage into
402-419: A color name . Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm. At wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silver's reflectivity is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm. Very high electrical and thermal conductivity are common to the elements in group 11, because their single s electron is free and does not interact with
536-470: A precious metal . Silver metal is used in many bullion coins , sometimes alongside gold : while it is more abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as a native metal . Its purity is typically measured on a per-mille basis; a 94%-pure alloy is described as "0.940 fine". As one of the seven metals of antiquity , silver has had an enduring role in most human cultures. Other than in currency and as an investment medium ( coins and bullion ), silver
670-481: A brushable texture, with a binder such as gum arabic . This was painted on the pieces of coloured glass, and then fired to burn away the ingredients giving texture, leaving a layer of the glass and colouring, fused to the main glass piece. "Silver stain", introduced soon after 1300, produced a wide range of yellow to orange colours; this is the "stain" in the term "stained glass". Silver compounds (notably silver nitrate ) are mixed with binding substances, applied to
804-521: A different colour). In medieval glass flashing was especially used for reds, as glass made with gold compounds was very expensive and tended to be too deep in colour to use at full thickness. Another group of techniques give additional colouring, including lines and shading, by treating the surfaces of the coloured sheets, and often fixing these effects by a light firing in a furnace or kiln. These methods may be used over broad areas, especially with silver stain, which gave better yellows than other methods in
938-761: A great demand for the revival of the art of stained glass window making. Among the earliest 19th-century English manufacturers and designers were William Warrington and John Hardman of Birmingham, whose nephew, John Hardman Powell, had a commercial eye and exhibited works at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876, influencing stained glass in the United States of America. Other manufacturers included William Wailes , Ward and Hughes , Clayton and Bell , Heaton, Butler and Bayne and Charles Eamer Kempe . A Scottish designer, Daniel Cottier , opened firms in Australia and
1072-454: A more Classical manner, and characterised by the brilliant cerulean colour of the blue backgrounds (as against the purple-blue of the glass of Chartres) and the use of pink and mauve glass. During the mid- to late 19th century, many of Germany's ancient buildings were restored, and some, such as Cologne Cathedral , were completed in the medieval style. There was a great demand for stained glass. The designs for many windows were based directly on
1206-575: A non-Indo-European Wanderwort . Some scholars have thus proposed a Paleo-Hispanic origin, pointing to the Basque form zilharr as an evidence. The chemical symbol Ag is from the Latin word for silver , argentum (compare Ancient Greek ἄργυρος , árgyros ), from the Proto-Indo-European root * h₂erǵ- (formerly reconstructed as *arǵ- ), meaning ' white ' or ' shining ' . This
1340-438: A number of resources to use and the work of centuries of other artists from which to learn as they continue the tradition in new ways. In the late 19th and 20th centuries there have been many innovations in techniques and in the types of glass used. Many new types of glass have been developed for use in stained glass windows, in particular Tiffany glass and dalle de verre . The primary method of including colour in stained glass
1474-598: A reward for betrayal, references the bribe Judas Iscariot is said in the New Testament to have taken from Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to turn Jesus of Nazareth over to soldiers of the high priest Caiaphas. Ethically, silver also symbolizes greed and degradation of consciousness; this is the negative aspect, the perverting of its value. The abundance of silver in the Earth's crust is 0.08 parts per million , almost exactly
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#17330855871741608-442: A rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is also applied to windows in enamelled glass in which the colors have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln; very often this technique is only applied to parts of a window. Stained glass, as an art and a craft , requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and
1742-612: A scale unparalleled before the discovery of the New World . Reaching a peak production of 200 tonnes per year, an estimated silver stock of 10,000 tonnes circulated in the Roman economy in the middle of the second century AD, five to ten times larger than the combined amount of silver available to medieval Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate around AD 800. The Romans also recorded the extraction of silver in central and northern Europe in
1876-406: A single electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell, accounts for many of the singular properties of metallic silver. Silver is a relatively soft and extremely ductile and malleable transition metal , though it is slightly less malleable than gold. Silver crystallises in a face-centred cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12, where only the single 5s electron
2010-644: A slightly mauve tint, characteristic of the glass in older houses in New England . Selenium has been used for the same purpose. While very pale green is the typical colour of transparent glass, deeper greens can be achieved by the addition of Iron(II) oxide which results in a bluish-green glass. Together with chromium it gives glass of a richer green colour, typical of the glass used to make wine bottles . The addition of chromium yields dark green glass, suitable for flashed glass. Together with tin oxide and arsenic it yields emerald green glass. The first stage in
2144-409: A stain known as "Cousin's rose" was used to enhance flesh tones. In the 16th century, a range of glass stains were introduced, most of them coloured by ground glass particles. They were a form of enamelled glass . Painting on glass with these stains was initially used for small heraldic designs and other details. By the 17th century a style of stained glass had evolved that was no longer dependent upon
2278-423: A thin layer of red glass to a thicker body of glass that is clear or lightly tinted, forming " flashed glass ". A lightly coloured molten gather is dipped into a pot of molten red glass, which is then blown into a sheet of laminated glass using either the cylinder (muff) or the crown technique described above. Once this method was found for making red glass, other colours were made this way as well. A great advantage
2412-491: A traditional type, it is usually left to the discretion of the designer to fill the surrounding areas with borders, floral motifs and canopies. A full-sized cartoon is drawn for every "light" (opening) of the window. A small church window might typically have two lights, with some simple tracery lights above. A large window might have four or five lights. The east or west window of a large cathedral might have seven lights in three tiers, with elaborate tracery. In medieval times
2546-556: Is cognate with Old High German silabar ; Gothic silubr ; or Old Norse silfr , all ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *silubra . The Balto-Slavic words for silver are rather similar to the Germanic ones (e.g. Russian серебро [ serebró ], Polish srebro , Lithuanian sidãbras ), as is the Celtiberian form silabur . They may have a common Indo-European origin, although their morphology rather suggest
2680-465: Is the difluoride , AgF 2 , which can be obtained from the elements under heat. A strong yet thermally stable and therefore safe fluorinating agent, silver(II) fluoride is often used to synthesise hydrofluorocarbons . In stark contrast to this, all four silver(I) halides are known. The fluoride , chloride , and bromide have the sodium chloride structure, but the iodide has three known stable forms at different temperatures; that at room temperature
2814-470: Is Ag 3 O which behaves as a metallic conductor. Silver(I) sulfide , Ag 2 S, is very readily formed from its constituent elements and is the cause of the black tarnish on some old silver objects. It may also be formed from the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with silver metal or aqueous Ag ions. Many non-stoichiometric selenides and tellurides are known; in particular, AgTe ~3 is a low-temperature superconductor . The only known dihalide of silver
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#17330855871742948-530: Is a murky mustard color but glows purple-red to transmitted light, and the cameo glass Portland vase which is midnight blue, with a carved white overlay. In early Christian churches of the 4th and 5th centuries, there are many remaining windows which are filled with ornate patterns of thinly-sliced alabaster set into wooden frames, giving a stained-glass like effect. Evidence of stained-glass windows in churches and monasteries in Britain can be found as early as
3082-438: Is because its filled 4d shell is not very effective in shielding the electrostatic forces of attraction from the nucleus to the outermost 5s electron, and hence silver is near the bottom of the electrochemical series ( E (Ag /Ag) = +0.799 V). In group 11, silver has the lowest first ionisation energy (showing the instability of the 5s orbital), but has higher second and third ionisation energies than copper and gold (showing
3216-403: Is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, and gold produces wine red and violet glass. Much of modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the clay pot in the furnace
3350-425: Is delocalised, similarly to copper and gold. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant, white, metallic luster that can take a high polish , and which is so characteristic that the name of the metal itself has become
3484-549: Is higher than that of lead (1.87), and its electron affinity of 125.6 kJ/mol is much higher than that of hydrogen (72.8 kJ/mol) and not much less than that of oxygen (141.0 kJ/mol). Due to its full d-subshell, silver in its main +1 oxidation state exhibits relatively few properties of the transition metals proper from groups 4 to 10, forming rather unstable organometallic compounds , forming linear complexes showing very low coordination numbers like 2, and forming an amphoteric oxide as well as Zintl phases like
3618-418: Is known as pot metal glass, as opposed to flashed glass . Using a blow-pipe , a glass maker will gather a glob of molten glass that was taken from the pot heating in the furnace. The 'gather' is formed to the correct shape and a bubble of air blown into it. Using metal tools, molds of wood that have been soaking in water, and gravity, the gather is manipulated to form a long, cylindrical shape. As it cools, it
3752-515: Is known to have some of the largest silver deposits in the world. Stained glass Stained glass is colored glass as a material or works created from it. Although, it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture . Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objets d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in
3886-413: Is much less stable, fuming in moist air and reacting with glass. Silver(II) complexes are more common. Like the valence isoelectronic copper(II) complexes, they are usually square planar and paramagnetic, which is increased by the greater field splitting for 4d electrons than for 3d electrons. Aqueous Ag , produced by oxidation of Ag by ozone, is a very strong oxidising agent, even in acidic solutions: it
4020-410: Is not reversible because the silver atom liberated is typically found at a crystal defect or an impurity site, so that the electron's energy is lowered enough that it is "trapped". White silver nitrate , AgNO 3 , is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, especially the halides, and is much less sensitive to light. It was once called lunar caustic because silver was called luna by
4154-447: Is now sometimes used instead of lead. For further technical details, see Came glasswork . Traditionally, when a window was inserted into the window space, iron rods were put across it at various points to support its weight. The window was tied to these rods with lead strips or, more recently, with copper wires. Some very large early Gothic windows are divided into sections by heavy metal frames called ferramenta . This method of support
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4288-424: Is pale yellow, becoming purplish on exposure to light; it projects slightly from the surface of the artifact or coin. The precipitation of copper in ancient silver can be used to date artifacts, as copper is nearly always a constituent of silver alloys. Silver metal is attacked by strong oxidant such as potassium permanganate ( KMnO 4 ) and potassium dichromate ( K 2 Cr 2 O 7 ), and in
4422-415: Is rare in the periodic table. The atomic weight is 107.8682(2) u ; this value is very important because of the importance of silver compounds, particularly halides, in gravimetric analysis . Both isotopes of silver are produced in stars via the s-process (slow neutron capture), as well as in supernovas via the r-process (rapid neutron capture). Twenty-eight radioisotopes have been characterised,
4556-531: Is reflected in the relative decomposition temperatures of AgMe (−50 °C) and CuMe (−15 °C) as well as those of PhAg (74 °C) and PhCu (100 °C). The C–Ag bond is stabilised by perfluoroalkyl ligands, for example in AgCF(CF 3 ) 2 . Alkenylsilver compounds are also more stable than their alkylsilver counterparts. Silver- NHC complexes are easily prepared, and are commonly used to prepare other NHC complexes by displacing labile ligands. For example,
4690-458: Is reheated so that the manipulation can continue. During the process, the bottom of the cylinder is removed. Once brought to the desired size it is left to cool. One side of the cylinder is opened, and the cylinder is then put into another oven to quickly heat and flatten it, and then placed in an annealer to cool at a controlled rate, making the material more stable. "Hand-blown" or "mouth-blown" cylinder (also called muff glass) and crown glass were
4824-430: Is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two vertical neighbours in group 11 of the periodic table : copper , and gold . Its 47 electrons are arranged in the configuration [Kr]4d 5s , similarly to copper ([Ar]3d 4s ) and gold ([Xe]4f 5d 6s ); group 11 is one of the few groups in the d-block which has a completely consistent set of electron configurations. This distinctive electron configuration, with
4958-472: Is stabilised in phosphoric acid due to complex formation. Peroxodisulfate oxidation is generally necessary to give the more stable complexes with heterocyclic amines , such as [Ag(py) 4 ] and [Ag(bipy) 2 ] : these are stable provided the counterion cannot reduce the silver back to the +1 oxidation state. [AgF 4 ] is also known in its violet barium salt, as are some silver(II) complexes with N - or O -donor ligands such as pyridine carboxylates. By far
5092-415: Is still made today, but not on a large scale. Rolled glass (sometimes called "table glass") is produced by pouring molten glass onto a metal or graphite table and immediately rolling it into a sheet using a large metal cylinder, similar to rolling out a pie crust. The rolling can be done by hand or by machine. Glass can be "double rolled", which means it is passed through two cylinders at once (similar to
5226-468: Is that the double-layered glass can be engraved or abraded to reveal the clear or tinted glass below. The method allows rich detailing and patterns to be achieved without needing to add more lead-lines, giving artists greater freedom in their designs. A number of artists have embraced the possibilities flashed glass gives them. For instance, 16th-century heraldic windows relied heavily on a variety of flashed colours for their intricate crests and creatures. In
5360-413: Is the cubic zinc blende structure. They can all be obtained by the direct reaction of their respective elements. As the halogen group is descended, the silver halide gains more and more covalent character, solubility decreases, and the colour changes from the white chloride to the yellow iodide as the energy required for ligand-metal charge transfer (X Ag → XAg) decreases. The fluoride is anomalous, as
5494-412: Is to use glass, originally colourless, that has been given colouring by mixing with metal oxides in its melted state (in a crucible or "pot"), producing glass sheets that are coloured all the way through; these are known as "pot metal" glass. A second method, sometimes used in some areas of windows, is flashed glass , a thin coating of coloured glass fused to colourless glass (or coloured glass, to produce
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5628-614: Is used in solar panels , water filtration , jewellery , ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the term " silverware "), in electrical contacts and conductors , in specialised mirrors, window coatings, in catalysis of chemical reactions, as a colorant in stained glass , and in specialised confectionery. Its compounds are used in photographic and X-ray film. Dilute solutions of silver nitrate and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides ( oligodynamic effect ), added to bandages , wound-dressings, catheters , and other medical instruments . Silver
5762-726: Is used in vacuum brazing . The two metals are completely miscible as liquids but not as solids; their importance in industry comes from the fact that their properties tend to be suitable over a wide range of variation in silver and copper concentration, although most useful alloys tend to be richer in silver than the eutectic mixture (71.9% silver and 28.1% copper by weight, and 60.1% silver and 28.1% copper by atom). Most other binary alloys are of little use: for example, silver–gold alloys are too soft and silver– cadmium alloys too toxic. Ternary alloys have much greater importance: dental amalgams are usually silver–tin–mercury alloys, silver–copper–gold alloys are very important in jewellery (usually on
5896-482: Is usually obtained by reacting silver or silver monofluoride with the strongest known oxidising agent, krypton difluoride . Silver and gold have rather low chemical affinities for oxygen, lower than copper, and it is therefore expected that silver oxides are thermally quite unstable. Soluble silver(I) salts precipitate dark-brown silver(I) oxide , Ag 2 O, upon the addition of alkali. (The hydroxide AgOH exists only in solution; otherwise it spontaneously decomposes to
6030-710: The Aube department alone. At the Reformation in England, large numbers of medieval and Renaissance windows were smashed and replaced with plain glass. The Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and the injunctions of Thomas Cromwell against "abused images" (the object of veneration) resulted in the loss of thousands of windows. Few remain undamaged; of these the windows in the private chapel at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk are among
6164-460: The Bible , history, or literature; may represent saints or patrons, or use symbolic motifs, in particular armorial. Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church – episodes from the life of Christ ; within a parliament building – shields of the constituencies; within a college hall – figures representing the arts and sciences; or within a home – flora, fauna, or landscape. During
6298-607: The Bundesautobahn 4 . There are 2 railway stations, the Hohenstein-Ernstthal station and Wüstenbrand station , both on the Dresden–Werdau railway . Silver Silver is a chemical element ; it has symbol Ag (from Latin argentum 'silver', derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ ' shiny, white ' ) and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal , it exhibits
6432-468: The French Revolution . During the 19th century a great number of churches were restored by Viollet-le-Duc . Many of France's finest ancient windows were restored at that time. From 1839 onwards much stained glass was produced that very closely imitated medieval glass, both in the artwork and in the nature of the glass itself. The pioneers were Henri Gèrente and André Lusson. Other glass was designed in
6566-843: The Koenigs–Knorr reaction . In the Fétizon oxidation , silver carbonate on celite acts as an oxidising agent to form lactones from diols . It is also employed to convert alkyl bromides into alcohols . Silver fulminate , AgCNO, a powerful, touch-sensitive explosive used in percussion caps , is made by reaction of silver metal with nitric acid in the presence of ethanol . Other dangerously explosive silver compounds are silver azide , AgN 3 , formed by reaction of silver nitrate with sodium azide , and silver acetylide , Ag 2 C 2 , formed when silver reacts with acetylene gas in ammonia solution. In its most characteristic reaction, silver azide decomposes explosively, releasing nitrogen gas: given
6700-532: The Lahn region, Siegerland , Silesia , Hungary , Norway , Steiermark , Schwaz , and the southern Black Forest . Most of these ores were quite rich in silver and could simply be separated by hand from the remaining rock and then smelted; some deposits of native silver were also encountered. Many of these mines were soon exhausted, but a few of them remained active until the Industrial Revolution , before which
6834-599: The mythical realm of fairies . Silver production has also inspired figurative language. Clear references to cupellation occur throughout the Old Testament of the Bible , such as in Jeremiah 's rebuke to Judah: "The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." (Jeremiah 6:19–20) Jeremiah
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#17330855871746968-435: The platinum complexes (though they are formed more readily than those of the analogous gold complexes): they are also quite unsymmetrical, showing the weak π bonding in group 11. Ag–C σ bonds may also be formed by silver(I), like copper(I) and gold(I), but the simple alkyls and aryls of silver(I) are even less stable than those of copper(I) (which tend to explode under ambient conditions). For example, poor thermal stability
7102-526: The post-transition metals . Unlike the preceding transition metals, the +1 oxidation state of silver is stable even in the absence of π-acceptor ligands . Silver does not react with air, even at red heat, and thus was considered by alchemists as a noble metal , along with gold. Its reactivity is intermediate between that of copper (which forms copper(I) oxide when heated in air to red heat) and gold. Like copper, silver reacts with sulfur and its compounds; in their presence, silver tarnishes in air to form
7236-457: The "Bishop's Eye" at Lincoln Cathedral . While stained glass was widely manufactured, Chartres was the greatest centre of stained glass manufacture, producing glass of unrivalled quality. Probably the earliest scheme of stained glass windows that was created during the Renaissance was that for Florence Cathedral, devised by Lorenzo Ghiberti . The scheme includes three ocular windows for
7370-641: The 15th century, the town of Hohenstein was established after silver was found and mined there. The name is said to be derived from the phrase ″uff dem hohen Stein″ (on the high rock), that the first settlers used when they saw the Pfaffenberg mountain. In 1680 some people from Hohenstein moved to the forest near the town to escape the dangers of the plague . That settlement was later named Ernstthal (Ernst valley) after August Ernst von Schönburg. Both town united in 1898, thus becoming Hohenstein-Ernstthal. During 19th and 20th century silver mining became less efficient, so
7504-702: The 19th century, primary production of silver moved to North America, particularly Canada , Mexico , and Nevada in the United States : some secondary production from lead and zinc ores also took place in Europe, and deposits in Siberia and the Russian Far East as well as in Australia were mined. Poland emerged as an important producer during the 1970s after the discovery of copper deposits that were rich in silver, before
7638-457: The 7th century. The earliest known reference dates from 675 AD when Benedict Biscop imported workmen from France to glaze the windows of the monastery of St Peter which he was building at Monkwearmouth . Hundreds of pieces of coloured glass and lead, dating back to the late 7th century, have been discovered here and at Jarrow . In the Middle East, the glass industry of Syria continued during
7772-470: The 7th-century BC. The Kitab al-Durra al-Maknuna , attributed to the 8th century alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān , discusses the production of colored glass in ancient Babylon and Egypt. The Kitab al-Durra al-Maknuna also describes how to create colored glass and artificial gemstones made from high-quality stained glass. The tradition of stained glass manufacture has continued, with mosques, palaces, and public spaces being decorated with stained glass throughout
7906-715: The Basílica Nuestra Señora de Lourde and the Templo Vótivo de Maipú both located in Chile. The Catholic revival in England, gaining force in the early 19th century with its renewed interest in the medieval church, brought a revival of church building in the Gothic style, claimed by John Ruskin to be "the true Catholic style". The architectural movement was led by Augustus Welby Pugin . Many new churches were planted in large towns and many old churches were restored. This brought about
8040-568: The Greek and Roman civilisations, silver coins were a staple of the economy: the Greeks were already extracting silver from galena by the 7th century BC, and the rise of Athens was partly made possible by the nearby silver mines at Laurium , from which they extracted about 30 tonnes a year from 600 to 300 BC. The stability of the Roman currency relied to a high degree on the supply of silver bullion, mostly from Spain, which Roman miners produced on
8174-585: The Islamic period with major centres of manufacture at Raqqa , Aleppo and Damascus and the most important products being highly transparent colourless glass and gilded glass, rather than coloured glass. The creation of stained glass in Southwest Asia began in ancient times. One of the region's earliest surviving formulations for the production of colored glass comes from the Assyrian city of Nineveh , dating to
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#17330855871748308-555: The Islamic world. The stained glass of Islam is generally non-pictorial and of purely geometric design, but may contain both floral motifs and text. Stained glass creation had flourished in Persia (now Iran) during the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736 A.D.), and Zand dynasty (1751–1794 A.D.). In Persia stained glass sash windows are called Orosi windows (or transliterated as Arasi, and Orsi), and were once used for decoration, as well as controlling
8442-487: The Middle Ages. Alternatively they may be used for painting linear effects, or polychrome areas of detail. The most common method of adding the black linear painting necessary to define stained glass images is the use of what is variously called "glass paint", "vitreous paint", or " grisaille paint". This was applied as a mixture of powdered glass, iron or rust filings to give a black colour, clay, and oil, vinegar or water for
8576-446: The US, 13540 tons of silver were used for the electromagnets in calutrons for enriching uranium , mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper. Silver readily forms alloys with copper, gold, and zinc . Zinc-silver alloys with low zinc concentration may be considered as face-centred cubic solid solutions of zinc in silver, as the structure of the silver is largely unchanged while
8710-501: The US. In France there was a greater continuity of stained glass production than in England. In the early 19th century most stained glass was made of large panes that were extensively painted and fired, the designs often being copied directly from oil paintings by famous artists. In 1824 the Sèvres porcelain factory began producing stained glass to supply the increasing demand. In France many churches and cathedrals suffered despoliation during
8844-553: The ancient alchemists, who believed that silver was associated with the Moon. It is often used for gravimetric analysis, exploiting the insolubility of the heavier silver halides which it is a common precursor to. Silver nitrate is used in many ways in organic synthesis , e.g. for deprotection and oxidations. Ag binds alkenes reversibly, and silver nitrate has been used to separate mixtures of alkenes by selective absorption. The resulting adduct can be decomposed with ammonia to release
8978-637: The black silver sulfide (copper forms the green sulfate instead, while gold does not react). While silver is not attacked by non-oxidising acids, the metal dissolves readily in hot concentrated sulfuric acid , as well as dilute or concentrated nitric acid . In the presence of air, and especially in the presence of hydrogen peroxide , silver dissolves readily in aqueous solutions of cyanide . The three main forms of deterioration in historical silver artifacts are tarnishing, formation of silver chloride due to long-term immersion in salt water, as well as reaction with nitrate ions or oxygen. Fresh silver chloride
9112-408: The cartoon was drawn directly on the surface of a whitewashed table, which was then used as a pattern for cutting, painting and assembling the window. The cartoon is then divided into a patchwork, providing a template for each small glass piece. The exact position of the lead which holds the glass in place is also noted, as it is part of the calculated visual effect. Each piece of glass is selected for
9246-707: The centre of production returned to the Americas the following decade. Today, Peru and Mexico are still among the primary silver producers, but the distribution of silver production around the world is quite balanced and about one-fifth of the silver supply comes from recycling instead of new production. Silver plays a certain role in mythology and has found various usage as a metaphor and in folklore. The Greek poet Hesiod 's Works and Days (lines 109–201) lists different ages of man named after metals like gold, silver, bronze and iron to account for successive ages of humanity. Ovid 's Metamorphoses contains another retelling of
9380-473: The clothes wringers on older washing machines) to yield glass of a specified thickness (typically about 1/8" or 3mm). The glass is then annealed. Rolled glass was first commercially produced around the mid-1830s and is widely used today. It is often called cathedral glass , but this has nothing to do with medieval cathedrals, where the glass used was hand-blown. Architectural glass must be at least 1 / 8 of an inch (3 mm) thick to survive
9514-747: The cupola windows has since been lost, and that by Donatello has lost nearly all of its painted details. In Europe, stained glass continued to be produced; the style evolved from the Gothic to the Classical, which is well represented in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, despite the rise of Protestantism . In France, much glass of this period was produced at the Limoges factory, and in Italy at Murano , where stained glass and faceted lead crystal are often coupled together in
9648-399: The decorated surface to the atmosphere or mechanical damage. Once the glass is cut and painted, the pieces are assembled by slotting them into H-sectioned lead cames. All the joints are then soldered together and the glass pieces are prevented from rattling and the window made weatherproof by forcing a soft oily cement or mastic between the glass and the cames. In modern windows, copper foil
9782-409: The design, the structure of the window, the nature and size of the glass available and his or her own preferred technique. A traditional narrative window has panels which relate a story. A figurative window could have rows of saints or dignitaries. Scriptural texts or mottoes are sometimes included and perhaps the names of the patrons or the person to whose memory the window is dedicated. In a window of
9916-491: The desired colour and cut to match a section of the template. An exact fit is ensured by "grozing" the edges with a tool which can nibble off small pieces. Details of faces, hair and hands can be painted onto the inner surface of the glass using a special glass paint which contains finely ground lead or copper filings, ground glass, gum arabic and a medium such as wine, vinegar or (traditionally) urine. The art of painting details became increasingly elaborate and reached its height in
10050-555: The dome and three for the facade which were designed from 1405 to 1445 by several of the most renowned artists of this period: Ghiberti , Donatello , Uccello and Andrea del Castagno . Each major ocular window contains a single picture drawn from the Life of Christ or the Life of the Virgin Mary , surrounded by a wide floral border, with two smaller facade windows by Ghiberti showing the martyred deacons, St Stephen and St Lawrence . One of
10184-434: The dominant producers of silver until around the beginning of the 18th century, particularly Peru , Bolivia , Chile , and Argentina : the last of these countries later took its name from that of the metal that composed so much of its mineral wealth. The silver trade gave way to a global network of exchange . As one historian put it, silver "went round the world and made the world go round." Much of this silver ended up in
10318-630: The early 1600s; the earliest is the work of Dirck Crabeth and his brother Wouter . Many of the original cartoons still exist. Stained glass was first imported to Latin America during the 17th–18th centuries by Portuguese and Spanish settlers. By the 20th century, many European artists had begun to establish their own studios within Latin America and had started up local production. With these new local studios came inventive techniques and less traditional imagery. Examples of these more modern works of art are
10452-413: The early 20th century. From 1300 onwards, artists started using "silver stain" which was made with silver nitrate . It gave a yellow effect ranging from pale lemon to deep orange. It was usually painted onto the outside of a piece of glass, then fired to make it permanent. This yellow was particularly useful for enhancing borders, canopies and haloes, and turning blue glass into green glass. By about 1450,
10586-637: The eastern end of Canterbury Cathedral . As Gothic architecture developed into a more ornate form, windows grew larger, affording greater illumination to the interiors, but were divided into sections by vertical shafts and tracery of stone. This elaboration of form reached its height of complexity in the Flamboyant style in Europe, and windows grew still larger with the development of the Perpendicular style in England and Rayonnant style in France. Integrated with
10720-408: The electron concentration rises as more zinc is added. Increasing the electron concentration further leads to body-centred cubic (electron concentration 1.5), complex cubic (1.615), and hexagonal close-packed phases (1.75). Naturally occurring silver is composed of two stable isotopes , Ag and Ag, with Ag being slightly more abundant (51.839% natural abundance ). This almost equal abundance
10854-411: The elements in groups 10–14 (except boron and carbon ) have very complex Ag–M phase diagrams and form the most commercially important alloys; and the remaining elements on the periodic table have no consistency in their Ag–M phase diagrams. By far the most important such alloys are those with copper: most silver used for coinage and jewellery is in reality a silver–copper alloy, and the eutectic mixture
10988-458: The engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, and also, especially in the larger windows, must support its own weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the Late Middle Ages . In Western Europe , together with illuminated manuscripts , they constitute
11122-526: The exceptions are the nitrate, perchlorate, and fluoride. The tetracoordinate tetrahedral aqueous ion [Ag(H 2 O) 4 ] is known, but the characteristic geometry for the Ag cation is 2-coordinate linear. For example, silver chloride dissolves readily in excess aqueous ammonia to form [Ag(NH 3 ) 2 ] ; silver salts are dissolved in photography due to the formation of the thiosulfate complex [Ag(S 2 O 3 ) 2 ] ; and cyanide extraction for silver (and gold) works by
11256-435: The famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany . As a material stained glass is glass that has been colored by adding metallic salts during its manufacture, and usually then further decorating it in various ways. The colored glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead, called cames or calms, and supported by
11390-422: The filled d subshell, as such interactions (which occur in the preceding transition metals) lower electron mobility. The thermal conductivity of silver is among the highest of all materials, although the thermal conductivity of carbon (in the diamond allotrope ) and superfluid helium-4 are higher. The electrical conductivity of silver is the highest of all metals, greater even than copper. Silver also has
11524-420: The finest. With the latter wave of destruction the traditional methods of working with stained glass died, and were not rediscovered in England until the early 19th century. See Stained glass – British glass, 1811–1918 for more details. In the Netherlands a rare scheme of glass has remained intact at Grote Sint-Jan Church, Gouda . The windows, some of which are 18 metres (59 feet) high, date from 1555 to
11658-534: The fluoride ion is so small that it has a considerable solvation energy and hence is highly water-soluble and forms di- and tetrahydrates. The other three silver halides are highly insoluble in aqueous solutions and are very commonly used in gravimetric analytical methods. All four are photosensitive (though the monofluoride is so only to ultraviolet light), especially the bromide and iodide which photodecompose to silver metal, and thus were used in traditional photography . The reaction involved is: The process
11792-523: The formation of the complex [Ag(CN) 2 ] . Silver cyanide forms the linear polymer {Ag–C≡N→Ag–C≡N→}; silver thiocyanate has a similar structure, but forms a zigzag instead because of the sp - hybridized sulfur atom. Chelating ligands are unable to form linear complexes and thus silver(I) complexes with them tend to form polymers; a few exceptions exist, such as the near-tetrahedral diphosphine and diarsine complexes [Ag(L–L) 2 ] . Under standard conditions, silver does not form simple carbonyls, due to
11926-412: The free alkene. Yellow silver carbonate , Ag 2 CO 3 can be easily prepared by reacting aqueous solutions of sodium carbonate with a deficiency of silver nitrate. Its principal use is for the production of silver powder for use in microelectronics. It is reduced with formaldehyde , producing silver free of alkali metals: Silver carbonate is also used as a reagent in organic synthesis such as
12060-400: The glass paint away to make the design, or the lettering of an inscription. This was the most common method of making inscriptions in early medieval glass, giving white or light letters on a black background, with later inscriptions more often using black painted letters on a transparent glass background. These are the colours in which the glass itself is made, as opposed to colours applied to
12194-504: The glass some protection against weathering, although this can also be true for paint. They were also probably fired separately, the stain needing a lower heat than the paint. "Sanguine", "carnation", "Rouge Jean Cousin " or "Cousin's rose", after its supposed inventor, is an iron-based fired paint producing red colours, mainly used to highlight small areas, often on flesh. It was introduced around 1500. Copper stain, similar to silver stain but using copper compounds, also produced reds, and
12328-481: The glass. Ordinary soda-lime glass appears colourless to the naked eye when it is thin, although iron oxide impurities produce a green tint which becomes evident in thick pieces or with the aid of scientific instruments. A number of additives are used to reduce the green tint, particularly if the glass is to be used for plain window glass, rather than stained glass windows. These additives include manganese dioxide which produces sodium permanganate , and may result in
12462-567: The gold-rich side) and have a vast range of hardnesses and colours, silver–copper–zinc alloys are useful as low-melting brazing alloys, and silver–cadmium– indium (involving three adjacent elements on the periodic table) is useful in nuclear reactors because of its high thermal neutron capture cross-section , good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water. The word silver appears in Old English in various spellings, such as seolfor and siolfor . It
12596-504: The hands of the Chinese. A Portuguese merchant in 1621 noted that silver "wanders throughout all the world... before flocking to China, where it remains as if at its natural centre". Still, much of it went to Spain, allowing Spanish rulers to pursue military and political ambitions in both Europe and the Americas. "New World mines", concluded several historians, "supported the Spanish empire." In
12730-412: The highest electrical conductivity , thermal conductivity , and reflectivity of any metal . Silver is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form (" native silver"), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite . Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper , gold, lead , and zinc refining . Silver has long been valued as
12864-641: The incoming sunlight in the hot and semi-arid climate. Stained glass, as an art form, reached its height in the Middle Ages when it became a major pictorial form used to illustrate the narratives of the Bible to a largely illiterate populace. In the Romanesque and Early Gothic period, from about 950 to 1240, the untraceried windows demanded large expanses of glass which of necessity were supported by robust iron frames, such as may be seen at Chartres Cathedral and at
12998-425: The late medieval period , glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica , the essential material for glass manufacture. Silica requires a very high temperature to melt, something not all glass factories were able to achieve. Such materials as potash , soda , and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime , are added to make the glass more stable. Glass
13132-464: The lofty verticals of Gothic cathedrals and parish churches, glass designs became more daring. The circular form, or rose window , developed in France from relatively simple windows with openings pierced through slabs of thin stone to wheel windows, as exemplified by the west front of Chartres Cathedral, and ultimately to designs of enormous complexity, the tracery being drafted from hundreds of different points, such as those at Sainte-Chapelle , Paris and
13266-407: The lowest contact resistance of any metal. Silver is rarely used for its electrical conductivity, due to its high cost, although an exception is in radio-frequency engineering , particularly at VHF and higher frequencies where silver plating improves electrical conductivity because those currents tend to flow on the surface of conductors rather than through the interior. During World War II in
13400-424: The major form of medieval pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as "illuminated wall decorations". The design of a window may be abstract or figurative; may incorporate narratives drawn from
13534-488: The medieval period the glass was abraded; later, hydrofluoric acid was used to remove the flash in a chemical reaction (a very dangerous technique), and in the 19th century sandblasting started to be used for this purpose. There are a number of glass factories, notably in Germany, the United States, England, France, Poland and Russia, which produce high-quality glass, both hand-blown (cylinder, muff, crown) and rolled (cathedral and opalescent). Modern stained-glass artists have
13668-606: The metal. The situation changed with the discovery of cupellation , a technique that allowed silver metal to be extracted from its ores. While slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated from lead as early as the 4th millennium BC , and one of the earliest silver extraction centres in Europe was Sardinia in the early Chalcolithic period , these techniques did not spread widely until later, when it spread throughout
13802-434: The most important oxidation state for silver in complexes is +1. The Ag cation is diamagnetic, like its homologues Cu and Au , as all three have closed-shell electron configurations with no unpaired electrons: its complexes are colourless provided the ligands are not too easily polarised such as I . Ag forms salts with most anions, but it is reluctant to coordinate to oxygen and thus most of these salts are insoluble in water:
13936-546: The most stable being Ag with a half-life of 41.29 days, Ag with a half-life of 7.45 days, and Ag with a half-life of 3.13 hours. Silver has numerous nuclear isomers , the most stable being Ag ( t 1/2 = 418 years), Ag ( t 1/2 = 249.79 days) and Ag ( t 1/2 = 8.28 days). All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than an hour, and the majority of these have half-lives of less than three minutes. Isotopes of silver range in relative atomic mass from 92.950 u ( Ag) to 129.950 u ( Ag);
14070-573: The only objects with a high-enough palladium-to-silver ratio to yield measurable variations in Ag abundance. Radiogenic Ag was first discovered in the Santa Clara meteorite in 1978. Pd– Ag correlations observed in bodies that have clearly been melted since the accretion of the Solar System must reflect the presence of unstable nuclides in the early Solar System. Silver is a rather unreactive metal. This
14204-625: The ores of copper, copper-nickel, lead, and lead-zinc obtained from Peru , Bolivia , Mexico , China , Australia , Chile , Poland and Serbia . Peru, Bolivia and Mexico have been mining silver since 1546, and are still major world producers. Top silver-producing mines are Cannington (Australia), Fresnillo (Mexico), San Cristóbal (Bolivia), Antamina (Peru), Rudna (Poland), and Penasquito (Mexico). Top near-term mine development projects through 2015 are Pascua Lama (Chile), Navidad (Argentina), Jaunicipio (Mexico), Malku Khota (Bolivia), and Hackett River (Canada). In Central Asia , Tajikistan
14338-423: The oxide.) Silver(I) oxide is very easily reduced to metallic silver, and decomposes to silver and oxygen above 160 °C. This and other silver(I) compounds may be oxidised by the strong oxidising agent peroxodisulfate to black AgO, a mixed silver(I,III) oxide of formula Ag Ag O 2 . Some other mixed oxides with silver in non-integral oxidation states, namely Ag 2 O 3 and Ag 3 O 4 , are also known, as
14472-577: The photosensitivity of silver salts, this behaviour may be induced by shining a light on its crystals. Silver complexes tend to be similar to those of its lighter homologue copper. Silver(III) complexes tend to be rare and very easily reduced to the more stable lower oxidation states, though they are slightly more stable than those of copper(III). For instance, the square planar periodate [Ag(IO 5 OH) 2 ] and tellurate [Ag{TeO 4 (OH) 2 } 2 ] complexes may be prepared by oxidising silver(I) with alkaline peroxodisulfate . The yellow diamagnetic [AgF 4 ]
14606-961: The presence of potassium bromide ( KBr ). These compounds are used in photography to bleach silver images, converting them to silver bromide that can either be fixed with thiosulfate or redeveloped to intensify the original image. Silver forms cyanide complexes ( silver cyanide ) that are soluble in water in the presence of an excess of cyanide ions. Silver cyanide solutions are used in electroplating of silver. The common oxidation states of silver are (in order of commonness): +1 (the most stable state; for example, silver nitrate , AgNO 3 ); +2 (highly oxidising; for example, silver(II) fluoride , AgF 2 ); and even very rarely +3 (extreme oxidising; for example, potassium tetrafluoroargentate(III), KAgF 4 ). The +3 state requires very strong oxidising agents to attain, such as fluorine or peroxodisulfate , and some silver(III) compounds react with atmospheric moisture and attack glass. Indeed, silver(III) fluoride
14740-406: The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, Ag, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta decay . The primary decay products before Ag are palladium (element 46) isotopes, and the primary products after are cadmium (element 48) isotopes. The palladium isotope Pd decays by beta emission to Ag with a half-life of 6.5 million years. Iron meteorites are
14874-462: The process. The centre of each piece of glass, known as the "bull's-eye", is subject to less acceleration during spinning, so it remains thicker than the rest of the sheet. It also has the pontil mark , a distinctive lump of glass left by the "pontil" rod, which holds the glass as it is spun out. This lumpy, refractive quality means the bulls-eyes are less transparent, but they have still been used for windows, both domestic and ecclesiastical. Crown glass
15008-476: The production of a window is to make, or acquire from the architect or owners of the building, an accurate template of the window opening that the glass is to fit. The subject matter of the window is determined to suit the location, a particular theme, or the wishes of the patron. A small design called a Vidimus (from Latin "we have seen") is prepared which can be shown to the patron. A scaled model maquette may also be provided. The designer must take into account
15142-400: The push and pull of typical wind loads. However, in the creation of red glass, the colouring ingredients must be of a certain concentration, or the colour will not develop. This results in a colour so intense that at the thickness of 1 / 8 inch (3 mm), the red glass transmits little light and appears black. The method employed to create red stained glass is to laminate
15276-419: The reaction of the bis(NHC)silver(I) complex with bis(acetonitrile)palladium dichloride or chlorido(dimethyl sulfide)gold(I) : Silver forms alloys with most other elements on the periodic table. The elements from groups 1–3, except for hydrogen , lithium , and beryllium , are very miscible with silver in the condensed phase and form intermetallic compounds; those from groups 4–9 are only poorly miscible;
15410-502: The region and beyond. The origins of silver production in India , China , and Japan were almost certainly equally ancient, but are not well-documented due to their great age. When the Phoenicians first came to what is now Spain , they obtained so much silver that they could not fit it all on their ships, and as a result used silver to weight their anchors instead of lead. By the time of
15544-697: The same as that of mercury . It mostly occurs in sulfide ores, especially acanthite and argentite , Ag 2 S. Argentite deposits sometimes also contain native silver when they occur in reducing environments, and when in contact with salt water they are converted to chlorargyrite (including horn silver ), AgCl, which is prevalent in Chile and New South Wales . Most other silver minerals are silver pnictides or chalcogenides ; they are generally lustrous semiconductors. Most true silver deposits, as opposed to argentiferous deposits of other metals, came from Tertiary period vulcanism. The principal sources of silver are
15678-616: The same time period. This production came to a nearly complete halt with the fall of the Roman Empire, not to resume until the time of Charlemagne : by then, tens of thousands of tonnes of silver had already been extracted. Central Europe became the centre of silver production during the Middle Ages , as the Mediterranean deposits exploited by the ancient civilisations had been exhausted. Silver mines were opened in Bohemia , Saxony , Alsace ,
15812-524: The same window. The French Revolution brought about the neglect or destruction of many windows in France. Nonetheless, the country still holds the largest set of Renaissance stained glass in its churches, particularly in the regions of Normandy and Champagne where there were vivid ateliers in many cities until the early 17th century with the stained glass painter Linard Gonthier being active in Troyes until 1642 . There are 1042 preserved 16th-century windows in
15946-509: The skilful cutting of coloured glass into sections. Scenes were painted onto glass panels of square format, like tiles. The colours were then annealed to the glass before the pieces were assembled. A method used for embellishment and gilding is the decoration of one side of each of two pieces of thin glass, which are then placed back to back within the lead came . This allows for the use of techniques such as Angel gilding and Eglomise to produce an effect visible from both sides but not exposing
16080-422: The stability of the 4d orbitals), so that the chemistry of silver is predominantly that of the +1 oxidation state, reflecting the increasingly limited range of oxidation states along the transition series as the d-orbitals fill and stabilise. Unlike copper , for which the larger hydration energy of Cu as compared to Cu is the reason why the former is the more stable in aqueous solution and solids despite lacking
16214-445: The stable filled d-subshell of the latter, with silver this effect is swamped by its larger second ionisation energy. Hence, Ag is the stable species in aqueous solution and solids, with Ag being much less stable as it oxidises water. Most silver compounds have significant covalent character due to the small size and high first ionisation energy (730.8 kJ/mol) of silver. Furthermore, silver's Pauling electronegativity of 1.93
16348-411: The story, containing an illustration of silver's metaphorical use of signifying the second-best in a series, better than bronze but worse than gold: But when good Saturn , banish'd from above, Was driv'n to Hell, the world was under Jove . Succeeding times a silver age behold, Excelling brass, but more excell'd by gold. In folklore, silver was commonly thought to have mystic powers: for example,
16482-407: The surface of glass, and then fired in a furnace or kiln. They can produce a range of colours from orange -red to yellow. Used on blue glass they produce greens. The way the glass is heated and cooled can significantly affect the colours produced by these compounds. The chemistry involved is complex and not well understood. The chemicals actually penetrate the glass they are added to a little way, and
16616-418: The technique therefore gives extremely stable results. By the 15th century it had become cheaper than using pot metal glass and was often used with glass paint as the only colour on transparent glass. Silver stain was applied to the opposite face of the glass to silver paint, as the two techniques did not work well one on top of the other. The stain was usually on the exterior face, where it appears to have given
16750-455: The textile industry became more important. In 1999, Wüstenbrand became a part of Hohenstein-Ernstthal. Hohenstein-Ernsthal is located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Chemnitz . The Ore Mountains rise south of the city. The highest point of Hohenstein-Ernstthal is the Pfaffenberg north of the town with an elevation of 479 metres (1,572 ft). Hohenstein-Ernstthal is adjacent to
16884-589: The types used in the traditional fabrication of stained-glass windows. Crown glass is hand-blown glass created by blowing a bubble of air into a gather of molten glass and then spinning it, either by hand or on a table that revolves rapidly like a potter's wheel . The centrifugal force causes the molten bubble to open up and flatten. It can then be cut into small sheets. Glass formed this way can be either coloured and used for stained-glass windows, or uncoloured as seen in small paned windows in 16th- and 17th-century houses. Concentric, curving waves are characteristic of
17018-458: The weakness of the Ag–C bond. A few are known at very low temperatures around 6–15 K, such as the green, planar paramagnetic Ag(CO) 3 , which dimerises at 25–30 K, probably by forming Ag–Ag bonds. Additionally, the silver carbonyl [Ag(CO)] [B(OTeF 5 ) 4 ] is known. Polymeric AgLX complexes with alkenes and alkynes are known, but their bonds are thermodynamically weaker than even those of
17152-460: The work of famous engravers such as Albrecht Dürer . Original designs often imitate this style. Much 19th-century German glass has large sections of painted detail rather than outlines and details dependent on the lead. The Royal Bavarian Glass Painting Studio was founded by Ludwig I in 1827. A major firm was Mayer of Munich , which commenced glass production in 1860, and is still operating as Franz Mayer of Munich, Inc. . German stained glass found
17286-495: The world production of silver was around a meagre 50 tonnes per year. In the Americas, high temperature silver-lead cupellation technology was developed by pre-Inca civilisations as early as AD 60–120; silver deposits in India, China, Japan, and pre-Columbian America continued to be mined during this time. With the discovery of America and the plundering of silver by the Spanish conquistadors, Central and South America became
17420-413: Was also aware of sheet silver, exemplifying the malleability and ductility of the metal: "Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men." (Jeremiah 10:9) Silver also has more negative cultural meanings: the idiom thirty pieces of silver , referring to
17554-619: Was also favoured for large, usually painted, windows of the Baroque period. Coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small colored glass objects. Phoenicia was important in glass manufacture with its chief centres Sidon , Tyre and Antioch . The British Museum holds two of the finest Roman pieces, the Lycurgus Cup , which
17688-477: Was mainly used in the 18th and 19th centuries. "Cold paint" is various types of paint that were applied without firing. Contrary to the optimistic claims of the 12th century writer Theophilus Presbyter , cold paint is not very durable, and very little medieval paint has survived. As well as painting, scratched sgraffito techniques were often used. This involved painting a colour over pot metal glass of another colour, and then before firing selectively scratching
17822-501: Was more often used ornamentally or as money. Since silver is more reactive than gold, supplies of native silver were much more limited than those of gold. For example, silver was more expensive than gold in Egypt until around the fifteenth century BC: the Egyptians are thought to have separated gold from silver by heating the metals with salt, and then reducing the silver chloride produced to
17956-457: Was the usual Proto-Indo-European word for the metal, whose reflexes are missing in Germanic and Balto-Slavic. Silver was known in prehistoric times: the three metals of group 11, copper, silver, and gold, occur in the elemental form in nature and were probably used as the first primitive forms of money as opposed to simple bartering. Unlike copper, silver did not lead to the growth of metallurgy , on account of its low structural strength; it
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