How did the very thing we look through every day even come about? Was it part of a magic potion, or was it nature? First, we must entertain the ideas of the very beginning to discover the history of glass. Pliny, an ancient Roman historian, claimed that the first glass was made in Syria by Phoenician merchants around 5000 BC. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the first man-made glass was made around 3500 BC in Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the first glass vessels were made around 1500 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia.Glass production was difficult and time-consuming in the beginning. Glass melting furnaces were small and produced barely enough heat to melt glass. Syrian craftsmen, on the other hand, invented the blowpipe in the first century BC. This breakthrough made glass production easier, faster, and less expensive. So it appears that different forms of glass were discovered from molten volcanic lava and used as art, rapidly evolving over the years into a man-made process.Before we progress further down the history books, it is important to summarize that glass was invented in the ancient world, but little is known about man’s first attempts. Mesopotamia made amulets and solid beads as early as 2500 BC. Around 1500 BC, glassmaking was further developed in Egypt. As glassmaking knowledge spread, Venice became a major center of glass manufacturing by the time of the Crusades. In 1291, the island of Murano received glassmaking equipment, and in the 15th century, Angelo Barovier, a Venetian glassblower, created cristallo, a nearly colorless, transparent glass. By 1575, English glassmakers were producing glass in the Venetian style, and in 1674, an English glassmaker, George Ravenscroft, invented lead glass.In 1608, Jamestown, Virginia, built the first glass factory in the United States. Crown glass, a type of window glass popular in the early 1800s, was in high demand. The invention of a hand-operated machine in the 1820s put an end to the age of blowing individual bottles, glasses, and flasks. The first semi-automatic bottle machine was introduced in the 1870s, significantly improving efficiency in glass production.After 1890, the use, development, and manufacture of glass began to rapidly increase. Machines were developed for the precise and continuous production of a wide range of products. Irving W. Colburn invented the sheet glass drawing machine in 1902, making mass production of window glass possible. Two years later, in 1904, American engineer Michael Owens patented an automatic bottle-blowing machine, revolutionizing the glass industry and paving the way for modern glass manufacturing.(Adapted fromhttps://shorturl.at/Ay6V6)In paragraph 2, the word “this” in the sentence “This breakthrough made glass production easier, faster, and less expensive” refers to...