Laminated Glass 1903
Laminated Glass was invented through a stroke of luck by chemist Edouard Benedictus. He was born in 1878 in and was a bit of a jack of all trades. He was an artist, a bookbinder, a writer and composer but he also studied as a chemist. It was in 1903 that his work as a chemist led to an invention that continues to affect the world today.
As he was working in his lab he knocked a glass flask off his desk, after all he was a better painter than he was a chemist. However, instead of shattering he was shocked to find that while the glass did break the flask kept its shape. Intrigued, Edouard Benedictus examined the flask further. He realized that the flask had once contained plastic cellulose nitrate. It had not been properly cleaned, probably because he was a better artist than a chemist, and the plastic cellulose nitrate had dried on the flask. When it dried it created a thin, adhesive film coating all around the inside of the flask. This allowed the pieces of glass to stay together even when the glass broke into pieces after falling on the ground.
He saw that this could be re-created in order to make a shatter proof safety glass. He continued working on the project and found that if he put a layer of the cellulose between two layers of glass he could make the perfect safety glass. He filed for a patent in 1909 but found that automobile manufacturers were not immediately interested in the new glass. It did gain popularity during World War I when it was used to make the eye pieces in gas masks. In 1927 it did start to find its way onto automobiles.