Pilkington plc is the largest glass manufacturer in the United Kingdom. It is based in St Helens, Merseyside. It was formerly an independent company listed on the London Stock Exchange and for a time was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but in 2006 it was taken over by Nippon Sheet Glass of Japan. Glass can be made transparent and flat, or into other shapes and colors as shown in this sphere from the Verrerie of Brehat in Brittany. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. ... The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ... The FTSE 100 Index (pronounced footsie) is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalized companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, begun on January 3, 1984. ... Nippon Sheet Glass Co. ...

The company was founded in 1826 as a family-run business in St Helens, Lancashire. Initially, the firm's name was Pilkington Brothers, but in 1894, the company Pilkington Brothers Limited was formed. The company was floated on the public stock market in 1970. It was for many years the biggest employer in the northwest industrial town. The distinctive blue-glass head office tower-block still dominates the town's skyline. The oldest surviving photograph, Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Pilkington has turnover of £2.7 billion, with manufacturing operations on five continents, and sales in more than a hundred countries.

In 1957 Pilkington invented the Float Process, a revolutionary method of high quality flat glass production by floating molten glass over a bath of molten tin, avoiding the costly need to grind and polish plate glass to make it clear. Pilkington then allowed the Float Process to be used under licence by numerous manufacturers around the world. More recently it devised a self-cleaning coated float glass product, called Activ™, on which organic dirt is broken down by daylight and is then washed away by rain. 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Float glass is made by melting raw materilas consisting of sand, limestone, soda ash, dolomite, iron oxide and salt cake. ... General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Standard atomic weight 118. ...

During the 1960s and 1970s, Pilkington used the flow of Float royalties to invest in float glass plants in several countries; also to acquire major existing glass producers in USA, Germany and elsewhere.

In late 2005 the company received a takeover bid from the smaller Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass. The initial bid and the first revised bid were not accepted, but on 16th February 2006 Nippon increased its offer for the 80% it did not already own to 165 pence per share (£1.8 billion or $3.14 billion in total) and this was accepted by Pilkington's major institutional shareholders. The combined company will compete for global leadership in the glass industry with the leading Japanese glassmaker Asahi Glass, which had around a quarter of the global market at the time of the deal. Pilkington had 19% and Nippon Sheet Glass around half that. [1] 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nippon Sheet Glass Co. ...

External links

• Official site
• Yahoo profile