Will Glass Battery Tech be a game-changer?

Just what is a Glass Battery?The glass battery is a type of solid-state battery. It uses a glass electrolyte and lithium or sodium metal electrodes.The battery was invented by John B. Goodenough, inventor of the lithium cobalt oxide and lithium iron phosphate electrode materials used in the lithium-ion battery (Li-ion), and Maria H. Braga, an associate professor at the University of Porto and a senior research fellow at Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas.  The paper describing the battery was published in Energy & Environmental Science in December 2016. Read it here
Braga and Goodenough stated they expect the battery to have an energy density many times higher than current lithium-ion batteries, as well as an operating temperature range down to −20 °C (−4 °F); much lower than current solid-state batteries.  The electrolyte is also stated to have a wide electrochemical window. The battery's design is safer than lithium-ion batteries, as the use of a flammable liquid electrolyte is avoided. The battery can also be made using low-cost sodium instead of lithium.  The authors claim the battery has a much shorter charging time than Li-ion batteries - in minutes rather than hours. The authors also state they tested the stability of the alkali metal/electrolyte interface over 1,200 charge cycles with low cell resistance; the specification for Li-ion batteries is usually less than a thousand.
The US Department of Energy announced its 2019 fiscal year award funds for what it calls "advanced vehicle technologies research" and both General Motors and Ford received healthy sums of cash. It appears auto makers are interested this this tech, but can you imagine if these batteries ever get to market and are cheaper, faster charging and longer lasting between charges than current battery tech, we may see small gas powered motor tools and equipment moving to electric motors. I will be one of the first to investigate it's use as an alternative for off-the-grid applications. Solar recharging applications? With the hope of charging 5x faster and more storage, even today's solar tech will be efficient enough to charge those batteries. Imagine with better future solars tech how well a battery operated off grid system would work.

Remember our video about our Estwing knife? See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYwEpziZ1k8

Estwing got back to me! Here's their response.

Hello TSG,

After doing some digging, this is what I have found. I hope this is helpful.

We did produce a hunting knife in Rockford Illinois into 1930’s and into the 1940’s.  We stopped manufacturing them but began to buy U.S. produced knives which we offered in a gift set along with our Sportsman’s Axe.  Into the 1980’s we were offering the gift set with a knife that was manufactured in Finland.  Then in the 1990’s we purchased a wood-handled folding knife style made in Sweden to put into a gift set with our Sportsman’s Axe.  Those also were a big hit.  Hope this information is useful.

Try Camillus Knife Co. to purchase knives.

In the 1930’s and 40s we did produce a knife here in Rockford but later on we bought them through a distributor in the U.S. (Camillus Knife) and then two other knife styles from Finland and Sweden.  In brief, the one we made had a brass end plate and different colored washers on the grip, symmetrical and not rounded in style.  The knife from Camillus had a white & black washers and was otherwise the same style, and the one from Finland had a narrow blade about ½ inch wide (not popular) and the last one from Sweden was a pocket knife with a fruitwood handle.  We stopped purchasing knives several years ago and no longer offer them for sale.  Hope this information is useful.

Best Regards,

Estwing Mfg.

-----Original Message----- From: theshootinguy@gmail.com [mailto:theshootinguy@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 11:00 AM To: sales@estwing.com Subject: Estwing Website Contact Request

I have what appears to be an Estwing Knife that I very little information on and I don't see any longer in your catalog. It's been in my wife's family for years and unfortunately, her father who gave her the knife a few years ago is no longer with us as of recent and we didn't get much detail on the knife except he had it in his workbench for years and wanted to gift it to his daughter, my wife whilst he was still alive. My name is TSG and I'm also known as "The Shootinguy" on the internet. I'm a content creator and I have a YouTube channel where I review and talk about many things out-of-doors including knives. Here's my channel if you care to see what we do. http//:www.youtube.com/tsgent   I thought It would be really nice to cover some of the details of this knife and its history etc. for my viewing audience. Here is an Instagram posting of the knife so you might see it in the hopes you could identify it and provide some info. It's name, year(s) made steel material, you know, "the specs". https://www.instagram.com/p/B4VCPw3gOyc/  Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you are able to shed some light on this cool little knife. If you are unable, would you please pass this along to whom you feel may be able to help out? It would be much appreciated. Thank you.    Best to you,    The Shootin' Guy  http://www.youtube.comTSGent