I don’t see why the article makes a big deal about “high temperatures”. Pottery kilns have to reach and maintain similar, if not higher, temperatures, for as long or longer than for glass fabrication. I would speculate that the initial discovery of glass was made by a pottery firing business.
They were probably trying to come up with a new decorative flux and stumbled over the formulation for glass.
>>Y.ou need to have ovens that can sustain 1500°C over long periods of time. Who would ever mix sand and lake salt and throw them for days on end into a blazing fire? It’s a mystery.<<
>They were probably trying to come up with a new decorative flux and stumbled over the formulation for glass<
If not a flux, then maybe someone who wanted to level out the floor of a kiln with something they thought would stand up to the firing temps.