Day 4 Mosser Glass - Ohio and temperature conversion

Today became a three state adventure covering West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In Ohio, we visited Mosser Glass in Cambridge. Some of the pieces here were simply magnificent. We were given a tour of two manufacturing runs. One run was producing a clear glass plate. The second was producing a red pitcher.

One point that our guide made was the temperature of the glass reaches roughly 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. We must remember that there are three primary constitutes of glass, each with a role: SiO2 (silica) acts as a former; Na2CO3 (sodium carbonate) lowers the melting point is called a flux; CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) serves to make the glass water resistant and is known as a stabilizer.

2400 degrees Fahrenheit seems to be the temperature needed to make glass; pretty much all of our guides/experts have given this temperature. I thought for this post we would just take moments to review temperature conversions.

The rules/equations for temperature conversions are as follows:
1. C = 5/9( F-32)
2. F = 9/5C - 32
3. K = C + 273.15

Two points of concern. First do not forget the parentheses in equation. If you can believe, I have seen text books which omit the parentheses; this changes the order of operation and will give the wrong answer. Second K represents Kelvins. It is a needed scale because it gives an absolute zero value making the Ideal Gas Law possible. But please, do not say, "..... degrees Kelvin." This is incorrect. It is simply Kelvins.

Now, almost all of the glass we have seen produced, including Mosser, have a secondary heating oven which is usually about 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Let's see you convert both oven temperatures to Centigrade and Kelvin.