Josephine Schippers, age 11, of Colwich, Kansas, for her question:

Hour long have people been using glass?

The original recipe for makinJ glass is lost in the dim distant past. More than 2,000 years ago, the Romans were making exquisite glass goblets tinted with rich colors and decorated with graceful figures. Glass vases of delicate green have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back more than 3,000 years. Other evidence suggcsts that objects made entirely of glass have been in use for more than 4 ,000 years.

However, the first glass most likely was used as a glaze to add shiny surfaces to pottery and ceramic objects. Bcads and painted tiles were coated with glassy glazes long before glass was used to make vases and goblets. Many of these objects have boon unearthed in ancient  3gypt and Mesopotamia. Some of them date back 5,000 years; others may be much older. Honcc, people may have been using glass glazes for more than 6,000 years. Glass making requires lots of heat and early glass was very expensive. Colored glass beads made about 5,000 years ago i iere rated as morc precious than real rubies and emeralds.