Different types of glassware such as television and electrovacuum tubes, insulators, capacitors, ozonier glass tubes or sheet glass electrodes, etc. are permanently subjected to the effect of electromagnetic fields and plasma of the corona discharges. As a result of the action the composition and structure of glass as well as its physical and chemical properties are different. The nature of electromagnetic fields effect on the inorganic glasses was little studied before. The use of barrier, corona and glow discharges in argon and nitrogen has been previously found (e.g., in [1, 2]) to result in clearing the glass surface, namely, in changing its adsorption properties. Meanwhile, the treatment of glass by the same discharges in presence of fluorine containing gases has been established to cause the glass surface etching. The aim of the presented work was to investigate the influence of plasma of the corona discharges on mechanical characteristics of industrial glassware. The subjects of investigation were sheet glass plates and the different glass containers were used. The experiments were carried out at a Glass Plant, as well as in laboratory conditions. The general technique of laboratory experiments was the following. The glass sample was placed between the electrodes inside the electrically-heated oven and was heated from room temperature up to the given one. After that, the discharge treatment was carried out. Regimes of glass treatment are the following: temperature – between 20 and 600 0C, duration – between 1 and 120 s, discharge voltage – up to 6.5 kV in laboratory conditions and up to 21 kV in industrial conditions. The value of microhardness was measured by microhardness meter PMT-3M. The procedure of microhardness measuring was the following. Each sample was pricked by a diamond pyramid about 20 times. In order to obtain reproducible results the duration of loading on the pyramid was 10 s and duration of exposition on glass surface – 5 s for every measurement. The indentation length was measured twice. The relative error of determination of microhardness did not exceed ± 4 %. Mechanical strength of jars were characterized by value of the resistance of the compression in the directions both along and perpendicular to the body walls. Loading speed was 20 mm/min, using the press UMM-5. The jars were placed between support plates of press, the joint line being aligned always at the same position. The absolute error of measuring was ± 10 N. The number of jars used for testing in one experiment was not less than 20. The changes in value of microhardness and mechanical strength of glassware were tested in these experiments in comparison with these properties for initial non-treated samples (only after heating). The data obtained were analyzed by the computer programmer of statistics calculations which has been developed especially for the given task. Some experimental conditions were varied in the experiments, namely: type of discharge, discharge voltage amplitude, temperature of glass, treatment duration. It was found in these experiments that the treatment of glass surface by ac and dc corona discharges resulted in raise of microhardness value. But it should be noted that when the electrode system "point-toplane" is used, the sample surface is treated non-uniformly. So the measurements were made both in the centre of plate and within 20 mm distance of the point. In the experiments it was found that the temperature rise causes the increase of glass microhardness. In optimal experimental conditions the microhardness of glass increased from 25 to 30 %, in case of action by ac corona discharge plasma. As regards dc corona discharge, the maximum of this value exceeded the initial one from 20 to 25 % after glass treatment by positive corona discharge. When treatment duration increased from 5 up to 120 s, the value of microhardness rose up to 15 %. In industrial conditions it was found that the average value of mechanical strength of jars after treatment by ac corona discharge plasma rose up to 8 % and microhardness – up to 10 %. The mechanism of interaction of plasma of the corona discharges with industrial glasses is discussed.