As any dad will tell you, it’s just about impossible to find adhesive that sticks glass to glass, or indeed glass to anything. This is important because small (and not so small) children invariably break small, inexpensive but emotionally attached toys and ornaments. Not to mention it’s a pain when your mother-in-law buys you a lovely set of martini glasses and then snaps the stem off one of them.
Glass glue. It’s not in B&Q, it’s not in Homebase; essentially it’s nowhere outside of arcane and impenetrable trade stores where you have to negiotiate with fourth level trolls to even get in the door.
And even then you need ultraviolet light to cure it.
So why is it that sticky chicken wing leftovers adhere to glass baking dishes with all single-minded purpose and tenacity of the Great Attractor?
After a week of scrubbing with water and wash-up liquid and oven-cleaner I’m still left with this:
The Great Attractor, Tuesday
If I could work out what makes that particular mix of char siu sauce stick to glass like a love-sick terrier to a trouser leg, and package it in a handy tube, I’d make a fortune from grateful dads everywhere.
The main problem with a glass adhesive is that it will upset the optical properties of the join. The human eye is very sensitive to small changes in refractive index and of course light will scatter from any discontinuity. There is no real reason why glass should not be glued, its just that the end product would be unsatisfactory so there is no large retail market for it.
And here’s me thinking that char siu means pork…
bq. Originally from southeastern China, char siu barbecue is now a favorite all over Asia. The name translates as “fork-roasted,” and describes the method of hanging strips of marinated meat on forked skewers and roasting them in an oven or over an open fire. Char siu is either the marinade itself or the roast barbecue pork that is the most common char siu dish. As a sauce, char siu is versatile and has endless variations. Also spelled cha siew or chashao.
source
You had a lot of time thinking about the culinary background of the ‘adhesive’ while you were scrubbing, didn’t you Richard?
I have a vat of this stuff. My girls are now 19 and 13 so I have 32 person-years of broken ornaments, fastenings, lego, toys, faux jewelry, clips, watches, etc- in a giant slew of despond.
So keep me posted on updates. For when they are grandmothers.
BTW, you know all those lovely items they create in primary school with papier mache and the like? Well, put them in a box in the attic and open them 10 years later. Amusing.
OK, so who wants in on the grant proposal?
Patent first, proposal later
I like the way you think.
Hydrogen peroxide plus aqueous ammonia, let sit over night. Repeat as needed. On glass use aqueous ammonia on stainless steel use sodium hydroxide (lye).
There are optical adhesives that have the proper refractive index for joining the types of glass that they are made for. High refractive index is prefered for most optical components and most organic materials have a low refractive index.
Well, Richard, it seems that you Great Unanswered Question is neither great, nor unanswered. In which case I move that your research funds are directed to genuinely great, unanswered questions such as
What becomes of the broken-hearted?
Who put the bop in the bop-shoowop-shoowop?
Why do fools fall in love?
Who put the benzedrine in Mrs Murphy’s Ovaltine?
Do you know the way to San Jose?
How much is that doggy in the window?
and, perhaps most importantly
Why have you left the one you left me for?
I think the answer to most of those is The Manfreds.
Next.
Who put that elephant in the room?
That’s no way to talk about Henry, Maxine. For shame.
Oh, I don’t know, though.