Decolorizers are the agents employed by the glass maker to neutralise or subdue the objectionable tints given by the colouring action of small traces of iron oxide, which exists as an impurity present in the materials used or otherwise become accidentally admixed during the process of the manufacture of glassware.

The small additions of manganese dioxide, arsenic, nitre, nickel oxide, selenium, antimony, oxide, etc., to glass batches may be considered as decolorizers. The most commonly used of these materials is manganese dioxide, so the action of this material will be explained. Every glass maker finds that one or other of the raw materials he uses may contain impurities. It is seldom that glass makers’ sand can be obtained that does not contain traces of iron oxide present as an impurity. Again, the cullet collected from the glass house often contains iron scale or rust from the blowing-irons, which firmly adheres to the glass and gets admixed with the batch for re-melting. The presence of even very small traces of iron in glass becomes evident as a pale sea-green tint when viewed through any thickness of metal. The chemical action of the glass upon the walls of the pot is continually dissolving a minute quantity of iron from the and diffusing it throughout the metal, giving it a tendency to the pale-green tint.

To subdue or neutralise this objectionable tint in the glass, the glass maker uses certain metallic oxides which give delicate counter-tints. Only those glasses which are made from the purest materials can be decolorized to become sufficiently clear to use in making the best table glassware. In optical glassware, where the use of manganese is not permissible, the greatest care has to be taken in the selection and testing of the materials to be used. If manganese oxide be used in making optical glass, although the eye may not be sensitive enough to observe the actual color absorption, glass is produced in which the solar rays are obstructed, and much less light is transmitted by the glass when used as an optical lens or prism. Therefore the optician avails himself of those glasses which have not been decolorized as being more satisfactory for his purpose, as more light is transmitted by such glasses.

Apart from the pale sea-green tint given to glass by the presence of small traces of iron, certain of the silicates themselves produce natural colors. The soda silicate present in soda-lime metal tends to give a pale bluish-green tint when viewed through any thickness of glass. The lead silicate has a yellowish hue. Each of these influences has to be counteracted if clear crystal glass is desired. The decolorization of glass by manganese dioxide depends upon the purple tint it gives to glass. This purple color, being complementary to the pale green color given by the presence of iron, serves and acts as a counter-tint, and by the absorption of the green light, a less perceptible coloring is produced. In the case of the decolorization of glass, we get the red and blue of the purple subduing the blue and yellow or green tint given by the iron. But certain other factors are necessary. The purple color from manganese oxide is given only to glass in the presence of oxidizing agents; and the absence of sufficient oxidising agents in the glass batch, the purple manganese colour is unstable and its action as a counter-tint is lost. Therefore, the glass maker uses strong oxidising agents in his glass mixtures for crystal effects, usually in the form of potassium nitrate and red lead, which liberate oxygen. Whilst undergoing decomposition in the glass melt, the presence of this free oxygen keeps the manganese used in a higher state of oxidation, and gives the necessary purple coloration. It is also evident that, if the glass melting in the pot is kept at a high temperature for any considerable length of time, this period of oxidation cannot last, and, after all the free oxygen gas has been evolved, any further heating tends to turn the glass greenish again or of poor colour, by the conversion of the manganese into the lower state of oxidation in which the purple colour is not evident. If by chance the glass maker has added too much manganese to the glass, and the purple colour becomes too evident, he resorts to the use of a small amount of carbonaceous reducing agent, such as a piece of charred wood or potato, which he plunges or pushes to the bottom of the pot by means of a forked iron rod or pole, where it vaporises, giving off moisture and carbonaceous gases which reduce the manganese purple colour to a lower oxidised colourless state, and in a very short time the excess of purple colour has disappeared and the glass appears colourless.

Much of the success of crystal glassmaking depends upon the proper adjustment of the decolorizers used and obtaining the best colourless effect. The quality of the manganese is important; only pure manganese dioxide should be used. In many cases the mineral ore, pyrolusite, is used on account of its cheapness. This is objectionable, as much iron may be present in the ore, when its use as a remedy is worse than the defect. The necessity of taking advantage of the services of a consultant chemist here becomes apparent, for, if glass manufacturers would only have their different consignments of materials examined and tested from time to time, many of the disappointments and difficulties experienced by them at present would be obviated. A considerable saving in the cost of batch materials can be made by the judicious selection of more suitable qualities in preference to inferior or adulterated varieties. In many cases, a chemist can substitute for certain of the expensive batch materials other cheaper materials introducing the same elements at less expense, and still retain the same quality in the glass produced.