Ludwig and Josef Lobmeyr ... Fake News!
There’s nothing new about fake news! Although the phrase has become very familiar nowadays, fake news has been around, and documented, for thousands of years. Wikipedia states that Marc Antony was the victim of fake news regarding his famed relationship with Cleopatra (committing suicide on the basis of fake rumours).
And of course, when things are in print, they must be true. Right? Seeing something “in black and white” bestows a kind of truth. The invention of the printing press in 1439 presented opportunities for spreading both truth and, well let’s say, “things that were not so true”. False reports even acquired a name … “canards”… and of course, propaganda (biased or selective information distribution, which may be true or false) is something we are all aware of.
Facts have recently come to light that suggest an interesting piece of historical selective reporting had presented us with the understanding that Ludwig and Josef Lobmeyr (of the famed Viennese Company) had been the first to discover the use of iridescence on glass.
However, it now seems that the actual discovery (of the intentional use of iridescence on glass), and indeed its pioneering creation, was actually made by Leo Valentin Pantocsek at J.G. Zahn’s glassworks in Zlatno. Indeed, the first iridescent glass was exhibited in 1862 at the London Exposition (World's Fair) by J.G. Zahn’s Zlatno glassworks.
Read the full Story Behind the Glass, and discover the real inventor of iridescence on glass, in our major new discovery: The Father of Iridescence on Glass - Leo Valentin Pantocsek.
And of course, when things are in print, they must be true. Right? Seeing something “in black and white” bestows a kind of truth. The invention of the printing press in 1439 presented opportunities for spreading both truth and, well let’s say, “things that were not so true”. False reports even acquired a name … “canards”… and of course, propaganda (biased or selective information distribution, which may be true or false) is something we are all aware of.
Facts have recently come to light that suggest an interesting piece of historical selective reporting had presented us with the understanding that Ludwig and Josef Lobmeyr (of the famed Viennese Company) had been the first to discover the use of iridescence on glass.
However, it now seems that the actual discovery (of the intentional use of iridescence on glass), and indeed its pioneering creation, was actually made by Leo Valentin Pantocsek at J.G. Zahn’s glassworks in Zlatno. Indeed, the first iridescent glass was exhibited in 1862 at the London Exposition (World's Fair) by J.G. Zahn’s Zlatno glassworks.
Read the full Story Behind the Glass, and discover the real inventor of iridescence on glass, in our major new discovery: The Father of Iridescence on Glass - Leo Valentin Pantocsek.
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Let's put to rest the fake news story about Ludwig and Josef Lobmeyr. They are not names that roll off the tongue when you think of Carnival Glass, but they have - falsely - been awarded the accolade of discovering the first use of iridescence on glass. According to the story, by using fireworks in a furnace where some glassware had been placed, the metallic vapours of the fireworks produced iridescence on the glass. The transitional metals contained in the fireworks (and we suspect they didn’t actually set-off the fireworks, but instead simply used the ingredients) were said to have given iridescence to the glass. One part of the Lobmeyr story is true - that they exhibited their iridescent glass to great popular acclaim, at the Vienna Exposition of 1873. BUT ... and it's a really big but ... the Lobmeyrs were essentially businessmen who recognised the potential for iridescent glass after seeing it exhibited at an earlier World's Fair - the World's Fair of 1862 in London. That iridescent glass had been invented by Leo Pantocsek, a scientist working at J. G. Zahn’s glassworks in Zlatno, and made in that factory. |
The advert above was in the Butler Brothers wholesale catalogue of 1909.
The title “Bohemian Iridescent Novelty Assortment” for an assortment of Northwood’s Carnival Glass is very informative. It acknowledges the fact that this “new effect” that they were producing - Carnival Glass - actually imitated the earlier Bohemian iridised glass. |
The Lobmeyrs exhibited their iridescent glass again a few years later at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris, and this resulted in their firm becoming wrongly wrongly considered to be the pioneer of iridised glass.
Here’s what a contemporary journal, “Glass and Glass Ware” – Paris, wrote about the Lobmeyrs back in 1878:
“J. and L. Lobmeyr - Universal Exposition At Paris, 1878. This house is especially celebrated for its iridescent glass, being the pioneer in that line. About twenty years ago it so happened that by using fire works in a furnace where some glass-ware had been placed the metallic vapours of these fire works produced a peculiar iridescent colour upon the glass. It is only three years ago since these gentlemen revived this process, improved it, and put it into general use, with such good results. Other Austrian manufacturers have taken up this process; the English also have obtained good results with it. These beautiful colours of the rainbow were applied principally to crystal glass, but also to several kinds of slightly coloured glass, such a slight amber, etc. The Austrian wares in that line cannot be surpassed.”
So, the Lobmeyrs became to be seen - wrongly - as the inventors of iridescence on glass.
In truth, the inventor was Leo Valentin Pantocsek and at last we can correct this long-standing fake news and give the real accolade to Leo Valentin Pantocsek!