Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten tin. The term ��float�� glass derives from Sir Alastair Pilkington, the man who developed the process between 1953 and 1957, together with Kenneth Bickerstaff of the U.K.��s Pilkington Brother. It was the first successful commercial application for forming a continuous ribbon of glass using a molten tin bath on which the molten glass flows laterally, unhindered to the limit of its free flow under the influence of gravity and surface tension. About 90% of the world��s flat glass is currently formed via the float method, which produces glass with extremely flat, parallel surfaces.
