History

The close collaboration between the Society of Glass Technology in Sheffield and the German Society of Glass Technology in Frankfurt/Main, which was established in the mid-twenties, can be viewed as a forerunner to the creation of the ICG. Both societies held their first joint meeting in 1928 and entered systematic technical committee work on the definition of terms used in the technological literature and the standardization of methods relating to:  the determination of thermal expansion; chemical durability of glasses; and of testing refractory materials.

Joint Meeting of Society of Glass Technology and German Society of Glass Technology in Aachen 1928
Dr. H. Maurach, Dr. M. von Vopelius, W. Butterworth,
Prof. G.R. Gehlhoff and Prof. W.E.S. Turner (from left to right)

The driving forces of this first international collaboration were Prof. William E.S.Turner (1881-1963), Head of the Department of Glass Technology in Sheffield, a position which he held from 1915 until 1945, and Prof. Georg R. Gehlhoff (1882 -1931), Member of the Board of Directors of OSRAM in Berlin and Head of the Glass Laboratory at Weiswasser. After Gehlhoff’s early death in 1931, Dr. Heinrich Maurach, Managing Director of the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG), together with Turner continued to pursue the idea of initiating a larger body of international collaboration.

The ICG constitution was finalized in conjunction with the first ICG Congress on Glass held at Venice in September 1933 and was signed by the following representatives: J. Antonio De Artigas (Spain), J.C. Hostetter (USA), B. Long (France), H. Maurach (Germany), A. Mauri (Italy) and W.E.S. Turner (England).

Prof. Turner was elected as the first President of the ICG, a position which he held until 1953; Dr. Maurach served as the first Honorary Secretary until 1950. Prof. Turner and Dr. Maurach are considered to be the founding fathers of the ICG.

Dr. Maurach had hoped to organize the III. ICG Congress in Berlin in September 1939. Due to the outbreak of World War II the planned Congress never took place. The venue of the first ICG Congress after the War was Venice in 1953.

Further details of the ICG History can be found in the ICG Publications: ICG 2000 "History and Vision" and "Winds of Change".

International Congress on Glass in London and Sheffield, 1936
First row: Dr. J.M. Mühlig (CZ), F.C. Flint (USA), Dr. H. Maurach (Germany), Dr. K. Mey (Germany), Prof. W.E.S. Turner (UK),
B.P. Dudding (UK), Prof. J.A. de Artigas (Spain), E. Meigh (UK), Dr. J.C. Hostetter (USA), Dr. B. Long (France) (from left to right):

The image shows, from the left: Leena Hupa (member, TC04), our honorary treasurer, Prof Alicia Duran (Management Board), Gülcin Albayrak (outgoing member of CTC) and  Hande Sesigur (Gülcin's replacement on the CTC from 2011). The photograph was taken during one of the breaks at the ICG annual conference in Shenzhen, March 2011.