Glitter

Glitter describes an assortment of small, flat, reflective particles. Glitter particles reflect light at different angles, causing the surface to sparkle or shimmer. Glitter is like confetti, sparkles, or sequins, but somewhat smaller. Since prehistoric times, glitter has been made and used as decoration, from many different materials including stones such as malachite,galena, and mica, as well as insects and glass. Modern glitter is usually manufactured from plastic.

The first production of modern plastic glitter is credited to the American machinist Henry Ruschmann, who found a way to cut plastic or mylar sheets into glitter in 1934. During World War II with German glass glitter unavailable, Ruschmann found a market for scrap material ground into glitter made of plastics. He founded Meadowbrook Inventions, Inc. in Bernardsville, New Jersey, the company is still a producer of industrial glitter. Decades later he filed a patent for a mechanism for cross-cutting films as well as other related inventions.

Today over 20,000 varieties of glitter are manufactured in a vast number of different colors, sizes, and materials. Over 10,000,000 pounds (4,500,000 kg) of glitter was purchased between the years of 1989 and 2009 alone. Commercial glitter ranges in size from 0.002 square inches (1.3 mm²) to 0.25 square inches (160 mm²). First, flat multi-layered sheets are produced combining plastic, coloring, and reflective material such as aluminium, titanium dioxide, iron oxide, and bismuth oxychloride. These sheets are then cut into tiny particles of many shapes including squares, rectangles, and hexagons.

Glittering surfaces have been found to be used since prehistoric times in the arts and in cosmetics. The modern word “glitter” comes from in Old Norse through Middle English. However, as early as 30,000 years ago, mica flakes were used to give cave paintings a glittering appearance. Prehistoric humans are believed to have used cosmetics, made of powdered hematite, a sparkling mineral.

8,000 years ago people of the Americas were using powdered galena a form of lead, to produce a bright greyish-white glittering paint used for objects of adornment. The collecting and surface mining of galena was prevalent in the Upper Mississippi Valley region by the Cahokia native peoples, for regional trade both raw and crafted into beads or other objects.

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Wikipedia