"If fall these cooktop[s] were laid out in a line, they would cover about three quarters of... the earth."
Schott
Schott, the German specialty glass producer, originally made glass ceramics for use in astronomical telescopes. In 1983 they introduced CERAN®, a glass- ceramic cooktop panel for halogen cooking. Hot and long-lasting, halogen bulbs were perfect for cooking, but their application in the kitchen had been limited by available cooktop materials. CERAN® brought the power of halogen bulbs to chefs everywhere. The cooktops contain reflectors beneath the bulbs to direct maximum heat to the cooktop surface.
Everyday incandescent bulbs consist of a tungsten filament encased in blown glass that contains an inert gas, such as argon. Halogen bulbs are similar except that, instead of an inert gas, a halogen gas—usually iodine or bromine—is used. Using such gases ramped up the bulbs' light output and radiant heat, but also demanded a special cooktop. CERAN" is translucent, thermally stable, and highly heat-resistant.
Halogen cooktops provide a flat cooking surface, but flat cooktops had been around long before CERAN". Electrical coils placed under glass-ceramic cooktops had first brought flat cooktops to kitchens, but these were no match for the heat of halogen bulbs. Schott's new CERAN" halogen cooktops proved highly popular; the company has sold over 50 million of them, incorporated into appliances produced by many different manufacturers.
