Abstract

The factory founded by M.V. Lomonosov in the village of Ust’- Ruditsa in 1753 for “manufacturing glass of different colors invented by him, and beads from it, bead stringings and all kinds of other haberdashery items and garments” ceased to exist no later than 1768. The article presents the results of the analysis of smalt glasses made in M.V. Lomonosov’s chemical laboratory and the Ust’-Ruditsa factory in 1749–1767. It allows reconstructing the unique technology of their production. This technique consists in the use of two frits – a high lead “yellow frit” and a potash “white frit”, as well as bone ash and lime. At the first stages of working with glass, the scientist employed ready-made frits produced at other factories. In addition to the bone ash the scientist used white arsenic and antimony as additives that cause the clouding of glass. Thus, we can assume that it was M.V. Lomonosov who, for the first time in Russia, added bone ash as glass opacifier. Using one and the same amount of colorant he managed to change color by varying the ratio of two frits. This explains the long-established fact that, with the help of a relatively narrow set of colorants (copper, iron, manganese, cobalt, antimony, gold and silver compounds), the scientist created the wide palette of smalt glasses. The first attempted mathematical processing of smalt analysis data allows defining the compositions of individual components in glass and the ratio of charge components. It has been suggested that the uniqueness of this technology and its specificity for smalt glass manufacturing served as an obstacle to its employment at other factories. However, M.V. Lomonosov did not work in vain. The skills of “compiling matter”, using colorants, producing “golden ruby” glass and the scientific approach to the technological process were undoubtedly developed at his factory in Ust’-Ruditsa.