For the Glass Sellers Company of London 2014 was the 350 th anniversary of the granting of their charter and 340 years since they agreed to purchase glasses from George Ravenscroft 'resembling rock crystal' for which he was shortly to be awarded a patent. Recently-discovered documentary evidence shows that when this patent was awarded there had already been 'divers fruitless attempts by others' to produce such glasses. However, it would not be long before Ravenscroft's initial attempt also proved 'fruitless'. This paper reappraises the quest for fine crystal glass in London and Dublin in the decade from 1672, bringing together newly-discovered and better-known documentary and finds-analysis evidence to explore what these 'divers attempts' may have been, why they might have initially proved 'fruitless', and how these problems may have been overcome. The picture that emerges suggests that: (a) there was no single invention in the sense we understand that term today – the development of English and Irish flint glass was multi-threaded, involving progressive empirical problem-solving; and (b) George Ravenscroft's role was closer to that of an entrepreneur than that of the 'gentleman heroic inventor' in which he is usually portrayed. The paper concludes by looking at potential avenues for future research to help resolve some of the remaining questions.
Colin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.