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Today I learned that East German chemists created almost unbreakable consumer glassware in the 1970s. They produced hundreds of millions of drinking glasses, expecting significant exports to the west because the product was just so much better than regular glass.
Those exports did not happen. If you're a western marketer of glassware, you *want* your products to break so you can sell new ones.
Outstanding job, capitalism. This is why we can't have nice things.
@pjf but, will it blend… err… will it survive the dishwasher?
#
@pjf it's worth mentioning that this isn't the first or last time this happened. And it's not just "non-western" researchers' work that is swept under the rug as not marketable, even when it's amazing. See the TB drug situation.
Edit: that is to say, fuck capitalism. Not disagreeing.
@Urban_Hermit @b4ux1t3 @pjf it'll either be Capitalism or a Nuclear Holocaust that kills us all.
Actually, Capitalism, this one's for you.
https://youtu.be/tFG_5PBl2K8?feature=shared&t=191
(Unfortunately I had to use YouTube for this link because there's no other platform hosting the video.)
Mark Nicoll 3.5%
@b4ux1t3 @pjf
My mum had some small ceramic plates that i dropped on a tiled floor multiple times as a teenager without so much as a chip. Everything else i dropped in that kitchen shattered. I remembered wondering why all crockery wasn't made of the same stuff. No idea who the manufacturer was but they were made in france in the late 70s or early 80s.
@prsfalken @b4ux1t3 @pjf
i can't remember. I just know i was really annoyed they sold it in a garage sale before they moved to spain, without offering it to me.
When I complained my mum said she didn't think I'd want it because it was old fashioned!
@duckwhistle @b4ux1t3 @pjf Do you mean Arcoroc tempered glass? The Octime dishware was quite popular back then. Only one small cup broke, since i moved out in 1994.
@pjf Is it possible to find this type of glasses today? I'd love to have them!
@danielcasanueva @pjf I see them selling on eBay.de, eg 6*0,25l for EUR 49,99. And ebay.com has them as well.
@thomanski @danielcasanueva @pjf I don't know if it's true, but I've heard there are fakes around as well!
@MikeFromLFE @thomanski @danielcasanueva @pjf
Should be easy to tell the fake ones though ;-)
@snaprails @MikeFromLFE @thomanski @danielcasanueva @pjf Makes me think of the scene in Jacques Tati's "Mon Oncle" where he accidentally drops a glass jug but it doesn't break.
@danielcasanueva @pjf
https://www.ebay.de/itm/286375026985?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=707-127634-2357-0&ssspo=RMqxsuOaT5y&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=IQUZDiq0TXe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Jep, they are not cheap though.
And I do not know where you live and if they ship there...
@danielcasanueva Try searching for: gorilla glass drinking glasses.
@pjf
@sparfindig Unfortunately this project lead this company into insolvency (hopefully it will survive as the regular glass and steel bottels are also really great). It turned out that the geometry of the bottles does not (yet) work well with the hardening process and the bottles break easily even during normal use. I really hope they will be able solve this, the idea is still pretty cool.
@danielcasanueva @pjf on your mobile: Gorilla Glass™
@danielcasanueva @pjf The french brand Duralex makes this kind of glass. They are famous in France as "the glass from scool canteen", so made to resist heavy child usage : https://www.duralex.com/
@pjf @danielcasanueva Duralex makes them today
@pjf Yeah, a friend and I were seriously attempting to get our own "proof of concept" rig going so we could start a small business here in the US & disrupt the local market by converting cheap glassware.
It made my Communist heart very happy. Sadly, he doesn't have the time.
The real kicker is that the process is cheap & easy if one has a glassblowing or pottery kiln. If J. Average could get an enclosed space to ~400°C, they could convert every spare bit of glass in their house for about $30.
@pjf you can get tempered glass glassware from IKEA for a few cents that probably outlasts the superfest stuff by quite a margin.
@pjf I just listened to an episode of The Life Scientific where the scientist under interview made all the pubs in the UK use toughened glass, as a public health measure. (It shatters less when used in pub fights).
Interesting juxtaposition!
@pjf I'm waiting for a business person to make a modern version and sell me some.
@purpleidea @pjf As capitalism in the 21st century has taught us, it does not have to be sustainable.
Just crash the glassware market, enjoy the money you made, and ride off into the sunset.
Well ... On the end of the Wikipedia article is a link to a Guardian article:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/aug/06/superfest-unbreakable-drinking-glasses-east-germany
In the end it writes about a new startup that hopes to produce the first bottles this year.
@pjf Same with light bulbs
@fazalmajid
in the case of lightbulbs, price and poor lighting was wot did it.
@Odanaos @pjf
@pjf The purpose of existence of the people is to generate wealth to fill the pockets of the capitalist parasites.
@pjf I could imagine it's entirely possible the main reason wasn't that capitalism needed easily breakable glass (e.g. nowadays I can pour hot water into a cold glass and vice versa without it breaking) but more of an attitude along the lines of "Why would we purchase superior socialist/East German glass while they don't purchase superior capitalist/West German cars?"
@thomanski @pjf I guess - wildly - that "hot water into a cold glass" changed with pubs getting bulk glasswashers rather than humans doing it. Certainly beer festival glasses (which here are the same objects pubs use, different printing) often survive being dropped...
A tale as old as *checks notes* the Roman empire. Hopefully no one was executed for inventing it that time.
« an inventor brought a drinking bowl to the Roman emperor Tiberius made of vitrum flexile … which did not shatter but merely dented. Tiberius asked if anyone else was aware of the invention. When the inventor replied that he was the only person who knew the secret, Tiberius had him killed. »
@counterVariable @pjf Specifically a "tale" in the sense of fiction, in that case.
@counterVariable @pjf I mean, that one is fictional...
@pjf there's a company working on reviving the process. German TV segment about that here https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/einfach-genial/bruchsicheres-glas/mdr/Y3JpZDovL21kci5kZS9zZW5kdW5nLzI4MjA0MC80ODk1MDctNDY5NTA3 @daswarkeinhuhn
@oliof @pjf @daswarkeinhuhn The old process is used by Gorilla Glass, BTW. The new process, which reduces the production time from 24 hours to 30 minutes, is now available via https://revisalt.com/en/company/
@oliof @pjf @daswarkeinhuhn And if you want close-to-unbreakable glassware made from tempered glass, you can buy that from https://www.duralex.com since 1945. They recently became a workers-owned cooperative, BTW :)
@jwildeboer I replaced our home grown collection of various glassware with different sizes of duralex earlier this year (-: @pjf @daswarkeinhuhn
@jwildeboer @oliof @pjf @daswarkeinhuhn Duralex. It gets many hits to break, but when it breaks, it is like shrapnel.
Also, Duralex is very heavy. This glass seems lighter.
@daswarkeinhuhn @pjf @oliof @jwildeboer And for those in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Austria: you can just walk into a HEMA for the Picardie glasses :)
@SChau I dont think HEMA exists anywhere close in Germany ...@daswarkeinhuhn @pjf @jwildeboer
@pjf as happened with the light bulbs long ago
@pjf
Reminds me of the Dubai LED bulb produced by Phillips exclusively for Dubai. They last 25x longer than conventional light bulbs. But, of course, that is not a good business case for a profit driven company. Thus, if you live in a country not headed by an ultra rich aristocrat who pays Phillips an undisclosed amount of money, you simply cannot buy them.
Edit: In the earlier version, I wrote “last 25x longer than normal LED bulbs”.
@utrenkner @pjf when they say "conventional lighting", don't they mean the old filament bulbs? The comparisons on the page are to a 60w bulb.
The ad on amazon says 25x longer than *conventional light bulbs". If they mean incandescent light bulbs, then this is already true of most LED lights.
The problem with these conspiracy theories is that in a true capitalist system, somebody *else* will be willing to make and sell the light.
https://www.amazon.ae/PHILIPS-DUBAI-3-60W-COOLDAY-LIGHT/dp/B07PF14S1V
@pjf I have some of the glasses I bought when I first came to Australia in 1974. I reckon 51 year old glasses are now "nice things". But in general, you are right. Capitalism sucks.
@pjf @aral Reminds me of the Phoebus Cartel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
@jotbe @pjf @aral also done as an Ealing comedy https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/The_Man_in_the_White_Suit
@pjf nothing lasts. Just buy new. Not anymore. Not buying anything
@pjf Half pint dimple mugs. That's what I borrowed/rented for a party back when they were available. I pretty well never had to pay for breakages - you could sometimes even drop them onto concrete and they'd bounce.
@pjf Yep. There was a documentary on the BBC or somesuch back in the 80s/90s about this. A classic of NOT built-in-obsolescence being buried fast.
@pjf another example of pyramids of waste... (which is done again today with LED lamps which unnecessarily break... except in Dubai)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_Bulb_Conspiracy
https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-lights-you-cant-buy/