Fiberglass has become a ubiquitous product in today’s world. You almost certainly have several fiberglass products in your home (or even on it). In 2020, total global glass fiber demand totaled 10.7 billion pounds. And yet, just 100 years ago, total demand was about zero. So how did we get here? This post tells the fascinating story of the creation of fiberglass and how it became one of the most important industrial products. Before diving in, we should start by clarifying our terms. “Fiberglass” is actually used to refer to two distinct things. Sometimes, the term is referring to glass fibers, which can be found, for instance, in insulation. On the other hand, the term is also used to refer to the combination of glass fibers and a polymer matrix, like the fiberglass hull of a speed boat.
If you’ve ever had the chance to see a glassblower at work, perhaps you’ve seen molten glass being drawn out into surprisingly fine strands. There’s nothing particularly challenging about that. We know the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks understood how to make delicate glass threads and would use them for decorative purposes.
But making some strands by hand and producing a large number of very fine glass fibers are two different things. In the 1800s, people in various places began to experiment with techniques for achieving this much harder result. The first patent in the US for the production of glass fiber was issued to Hermann Hammesfahr in 1880. He developed a cloth woven from glass fibers and silk.