英国学生科学读本 第73期:玻璃窗(2)

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　　玻璃主要由细致的白沙或硅石在熔炉中炼成。为了确保能够轻松地将沙子融化掉, 我们必须要加入一些苏打、白垩或石灰以及少量玻璃渣。

　　Have you ever seen a glass-house, or a building in which glass is made? It is generally built of bricks, in the shape of a large cone². The mixture of sand and soda is put into large melting-pots, and these are placed in the furnace or fierce fire which burns in the centre of the glass-house.

　　你有没有见过玻璃工厂, 也就是生产制作玻璃的地方? 这样的工厂一般由砖块搭建而成, 呈巨大的圆锥形。沙子与苏打的混合物被放入到一个庞大的熔炉中, 然后通过工厂中央炙热的炉火进行加热。

　　Soon the mixture melts and forms a white-hot liquid. To make plate-glass , this liquid is poured upon an iron table, and then rolled out just like dough³ with iron rollers. The hot sheet of glass is then placed in a room, where it cools very slowly indeed. This is called annealing: If the glass were cooled quickly, it would be too brittle⁴ to use.

　　很快, 混合物便被融化并形成白色的沸腾液体。如果要制造平板玻璃, 这些液体将被倒在一个铁板之上, 然后使用铁制滚子像和面那样反复卷压。随后, 人们将滚烫的玻璃片放在一间厂房中, 让它们慢慢冷却。这个步骤叫做退火。如果玻璃冷却过快, 就会非常脆弱而根本无法使用。

　　Cheaper and thinner kinds of window-glass are made by blowing. The glass-blower dips a long iron tube or blow-pipe into the melted glass, taking up a little of it on the end of the tube. He then blows this out like a huge soap-bubble, and as it begins to cool he rolls the glass - bubble on a smooth table until it becomes a cylinder⁵. This cylinder is afterwards cut open with a diamond, and is spread out into a flat sheet after it has again been softened⁶ by heat.

　　更薄、更便宜的窗户玻璃通过吹制而成。吹玻璃工人将长长的铁管或吹管放入融化的玻璃之中, 用管子的末端沾上一点。然后, 他就开始用力吹, 很快, 融化的玻璃就会像巨大的肥皂泡一样膨胀起来。等它开始冷却的时候, 工人将这个玻璃泡放在平滑的桌子上反复滚动, 最后形成一个圆筒。随后, 工人用金刚石把这个玻璃圆筒切开。接着, 经过再一次加热后, 玻璃就会变软, 最后变成一块平整的玻璃片。

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