

Dark Crystal: The Secrets of Swarovski - rshrsh
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dark-crystal-the-secrets-of-swarovski

======
Pyxl101
Submarine advertising?
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

"Swarovski, who celebrates its 120-year anniversary this year, is a steward of
a centuries-old Bohemian tradition, making use of natural resources in the
Czech Republic and Austria. It’s a phenomenally innovative design studio and
an impressively creative chemical laboratory, all in one. And, of course, it’s
the beneficiary of absolutely genius marketing."

Patting themselves on the back much? :-)

~~~
matheweis
Yea, this piece reeks of it...

"What makes Swarovski’s crystals better than its competitors? It’s all about
brilliance."

"well-cut diamond is always going to have more fire and more brilliance than a
glass crystal,” says Walker. But that, really, is debatable, and also
flexible: there’s only so much you can do to a diamond, but a synthetic
material like Swarovski crystal has no limits."

~~~
mikeash
Wow, no limits! They should stop making pretty baubles and use their limitless
technology to build the containment for a cheap fusion reactor or something.

------
shellac
> glass is a particular type of liquid ...

No, it's not a liquid.

> ... so its internal structure is all a jumble

That's true. But it doesn't flow, which is a rather significant part of being
liquid.

~~~
knodi123
Went on a double date with another guy who was a PhD chemist. He made an
offhanded remark about glass being a liquid, and trotted out that saw about
ancient cathedral windows being thicker at the bottom.

I explained that that was actually untrue, and explained the crown glass
method, and that a small percentage of those panes are thicker _at the top_.
He just gave me this scornful glance and said "I've got a doctorate in
chemistry, I think I know a _little_ bit more about this than you do." I was
so mad! No, dingus, you don't. You study membranes, and you've never read
anything about glass. But I didn't want to start a fight, so I had to just let
it go.

~~~
Reedx
I remember being taught that glass was a liquid in high school (early 90s) and
they referenced antique glass being thicker at the bottom as an example. So I
was fascinated by that and thought it was true for the longest time. :/

Some interesting reading regarding that urban myth and the actual science:

[http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C01/C01Links/www.ualberta.ca/...](http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C01/C01Links/www.ualberta.ca/~bderksen/florin.html)

~~~
throw7
That's interesting. I was also taught glass is a liquid.

We should correct people when they say it's a liquid OR a solid, because
neither is correct; but I think we should not be so critical/furious if
someone calls glass a supercooled liquid, etc. (ref: Tamman "frozen super-
cooled liquid", the article: "a particular type of liquid").

Calling it an "amorphous solid" is obviously the currently accepted formal
physicist category of course.

------
unknownzero
[http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/swarvoski-
cryst...](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/swarvoski-
crystals/n30757)

SNL skit that is both hilarious and very relevant to this article. "Crystals
are light and 50 dollars, plus they're diamonds"

------
EugeneOZ
Because he didn't use crappy popup windows.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Some combination of uBlock and Ghostery prevented this for me.

~~~
kaybe
Ghostery + httpseverywhere did the same for me.

------
stephengillie
So I'm assuming this is a slightly different glass than Soda-lime glass[1].
Maybe something closer to borosilicate glass[2]? Indeed there are many
materials that can make glass.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda-
lime_glass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda-lime_glass)

[2][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#Composition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#Composition)

When I was a kid, a neighbor down the street had a house full of these, they
had lived in Germany while working for the US Army.

~~~
MoOmer
Apparently Pyrex is no longer borosilicate.

~~~
greglindahl
In the US, apparently, there's a new and cheaper Pyrex that's ordinary
tempered glass. Elsewhere, it still the good stuff:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex)

~~~
kps
The article also mentions soda-lime Pyrex® products from the '30s. ‘Pyrex’ has
been nothing more than a brand name for a long, long time.

------
ajuc
So it's fake, it contains lead, and it's sponsoring shaddy adverts in the net.

------
stared
When looking at Wikipedia
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Swarovski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Swarovski))
I got some (possibly) conflicting information - that he was Jewish and an
avowed Nazi party member. Especially given that some of the last edits looks
unencyclopedic - could anyone more knowlegeble look at it and fix it? (I have
tried to look at German Wikipedia and there was reference to Nazi party but
not to Jewish roots, so the former looks more plausible.)

~~~
smsm42
There were people of Jewish descent that served in Wehrmacht, including in
pretty high positions[1]. The service also protected from some of the anti-
Jewish abuse initially, and some people of Jewish descent both felt much more
connection to German service (even after Nazis took over it) than their Jewish
roots, and were too useful, so Goering was noted to say "I am deciding who is
Jewish and who is not". Also there's the case of Werner Goldberg[2], a son of
Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, who was lauded by Nazi press as the
"Ideal German Soldier". Ironically, Goldberg's looks proved to be so
irresistible that recently he was featured on the monument to the "Defenders
of the Motherland" in Russia. [3]

So, in principle, there's nothing impossible for a person to be both of Jewish
descent and a Nazi sympathizer. Stranger things have happened.

[1]
[http://www.jewishmag.com/158mag/hitler_jewish_soldiers/hitle...](http://www.jewishmag.com/158mag/hitler_jewish_soldiers/hitler_jewish_soldiers.htm)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Goldberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Goldberg)

[3]
[http://znak.com/tumen/news/2015-06-26/1041938.html](http://znak.com/tumen/news/2015-06-26/1041938.html)

~~~
stared
I am not saying its not impossible, but that unlikely things need strong
backing (as of now, Wikipedia links to a single newspaper article on this
matter).

------
spinningarrow
"Glass is more like a popsicle."

------
facepalm
I always thought it is just glass...

