this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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My dad needed a very clear, more scratch resistant glass for a product he was working on. Up until then, the best you could get was by going to glass companies and getting sapphire coated glass. He searched a chemistry book of compounds and found what he was looking for. Based on the structure, the qualities were known, but it hadn't ever been created. So he then to a chemical company and worked with them to make it. It's essentially aluminum oxide (corundum/ruby or sapphire depending on the color. His was colorless.)
When he unveiled it to the company he worked for, he called it "transparent aluminum". He said one guy at the back of the room caught the Star Trek reference.