Notice the details in this story about glass bottles.  They give you facts and information.

 Old Glass Bottles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

     Glass bottles were first made about three thousand years ago.  The oldest bottles were made by hand.  People blew them into different shapes. 


When were glass bottles first made?



 

 

 

 

 

 

     Long iron tubes were used to blow the glass.  People dipped the tubes into melted glass.  Then they blew through the tubes.  Finally they broke the bottles off the tubes.  The tubes left a mark on the finished glass.  This mark shows that the glass was blown.


To blow the glass, people used -

A. glass pots
B. old bottles
C. iron tubes

 

 

 



 

 

     There are other ways to tell if a bottle was made by hand.  The glass might have bubbles in it.  The bubbles probably came from boiling the glass.  Many times the bubbles would stay in the glass as it cooled.


Glass bubbles might come from -

A. soap
B. breaking the glass
C. boiling the glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Then people began making glass bottles other ways.  They made bottles by pouring the glass into forms.  It took two forms to make a bottle.  There was one form for each half.  Bottles made this way have lines down the sides.  That's where the two halves were joined together.


Bottles with lines down the sides were -

A. blown with a new kind of tool
B. broken and then fixed
C. poured into two forms

 

 

 



 

 

     Some old bottles have letters written in the glass.  The letters are on the side or the bottom.  You can feel them because they stick out.  These letters tell the name of the bottle company.  There are books that tell about the different companies.  The books tell you when and where each bottle was made.


To find out when a bottle was made -

A. use a book that tells about bottle companies
B. learn to blow glass
C. count the lines on the side of the glass