Q. Was wood used for fuel in ancient glass furnaces?

Image: Woodcut of glassworkers at a furnace from Georg. Agricola, Berckwerck Buch (Gedruckt in der keyserlichen Reichssstatt Franckfort am Mayn: Getruckt durch P. Schmidt in Verlegung Sigmundt Feyrabendts, 1580). CGML 66820.

Thank you for your question! The short answer is, yes, wood was used in ancient glass furnaces. Below are additional resources that can provide more information.

Online Resources

• Mark Taylor and David Hill's website The Glassmakers provides information on re-creating and using ancient glass furnaces. Their Roman Furnace Project from 2005 and 2006 featured a wood-fired glassworking furnace.

The site includes information about history and techniques, along with their other projects.

Two articles on the Roman Furnace Project were also featured in the Journal of Glass Studies in 2008:

• "Experiments in the Reconstruction of Roman Wood-Fired Glassworking Furnaces" by Hill and Taylor (link to PDF).
• "Waste Products and Their Formation Process" by Sarah Paynter (link to PDF).

A brief video was produced as well, Roman Furnace (Bye Jones Productions, 2005), available in our Library collection, that demonstrates glassblowing at the lit furnace.

• You may also be interested in the digital version of The Art of Glassmaking, 1751-1772; A Portfolio of Prints from the Diderot Encyclopedia (Corning, N.Y.: Corning Glass Center, [1960-1970]), which depicts 18th-century glassworkers using a wood-fired furnace.
• Blog post "Equinox Gaffers head to The Glass Furnace in Istanbul, Turkey" (2012) documents their visit to The Glass Furnace in Istanbul, Turkey, and their chance to see a working wood-fired furnace.

Additional Resources

The following items might also be of interest (links are to records in the Rakow Library catalog unless otherwise noted):

• Dries, F. M. A. van den. The Roman Glass Furnaces Project at Velzeke. Tilburg, [The Netherlands]: F.M.A. van den Dries, 2009. Notes: Mark Taylor and David Hill contribute. Contents include sections on "The fuel," "Preheating in October," and "Stoking in November."
• Fischer, Alysia. Hot Pursuit: Integrating Anthropology in Search of Ancient Glass-Blowers. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. Note: Chapter on "Experimenting with Furnaces."
• “Glassmaking at Tell el-Amarna.” Glass, Monthly Journal of the European Glass Industry 76, no. 11 (Nov. 1999), SGT News (Society of Glass Technology), pp. 1-2.
• Riffaud-Longuespe, Philippe. "Aube: Troyes gallo-romain." Archeologia 416 (2004): 48-59. Note: Includes mention of glassmaking and illustration of a furnace.
• Shepherd, John. “Reconstructing a Roman Furnace.” Glass News, no. 2, Winter 1996: 6.
• Waggoner, Shawn. “Working Greener: Angus Powers: Resurrecting the Roman Furnace.” Glass Art 30, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2015), pp. 18-22, ill. Note: Profile of the glass artist and his work using updraft wood-fired primitive furnaces.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with your glass-related questions in the future!