anaclastic glasses

Noun

anaclastic glass (plural anaclastic glasses)

1. A glass or phial, shaped like an inverted funnel, with a very thin convex bottom that can be made concave or convex by sucking out or blowing in air, used to demonstrate the malleability of glass.
   • Anaclastic glasses are chiefly manufactured in Germany of a fine white glass, but any other glass, which is uniform in its substnace, and not very hard, will do equally well.1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia - Volume 1, page 703
2. Synonym of vexing glass.
   • The Double reflects the drama of the lonely man of our time as in an anaclastic glass. What is piquant is that the costs of the fruitless emancipation are borne, not by a hero, a great personage, but by an amusing little fellow, one of the poor people .1928, Julius Meier-Graefe, Dostoevsky: The Man and His Work, page 70

   Synonyms:

   vexing glass