Primary Stabilisation Factor Of The Corrosion Of Historical Glasses: The Gel Layer

Leached gel layers of variable thickness and composition, mostly crisscrossed by cracks and fissures, are built during long-term exposure of historical glasses. Depending on the glass composition as well as on the environmental conditions the gel layers show various shapes. They can be characterised by microprobe investigations, though photographs of the cross-sections in vertical plane to the corroded surface as well as determinatoin of the chemical composition.