HISTORY OF WINDOW GLASS
MANUFACTURE
GLASS MANUFACTURE IN THE
UNITED KINGDOM - CHRONOLOGY
Window Glass was not produced in
significant quantities in this country until :-
- 1226 BROAD SHEET was first made
in Sussex, but of poor quality, and fairly opaque. Manufacture slowly
decreased and ceased by the early 16th Century.
- 1330 French glassmakers produced
CROWN GLASS for the first time at Rouen. Some French Crown and Broad Sheet was
imported into the UK.
- 1620 BLOWN PLATE was produced in
London by grinding and polishing Broad Sheet, and was used for mirrors and
Coach Plates.
- 1678 CROWN GLASS was first
produced in London. Because of its finer quality, this process predominated
until the mid nineteenth century.
- 1688 The French produced POLISHED
PLATE in larger sizes by casting and hand polishing.
-
1773 English POLISHED PLATE by the
French process was produced at Ravenshead. By 1800 a steam engine was used to
carry out the grinding and polishing of the cast glass.
- 1834 Robert Lucas Chance
introduced IMPROVED CYLINDER SHEET, using a German process to produce finer
quality and larger panes. This glass was used to glaze The Crystal Palace. The
process was used extensively until early in the 20th Century to make window
glass. From this period onwards machines were developed to automate the
production of obscured Glass and later, window glass.
- 1847 James Hartley introduced a
ROLLED PLATE glass with obscured ribbed finish, which is often found glazed in
the roofs of railway termini.
- 1888 Chance Bros introduced
MACHINE ROLLED patterned glass.
- 1898 Pilkingtons introduced
Hexagonal Rolled WIRED CAST.
- 1903 MACHINE DRAWN CYLINDER Glass
invented in the USA, was manufactured in the UK by Pilkingtons from 1910 to
1933.
- 1913 Belgium produced the first
machine FLAT DRAWN SHEET glass. It was first drawn in the UK in 1919 in Kent .
- 1923 First UK production of
continuous POLISHED PLATE glass, using single grinding system.
- 1938 Pilkingtons developed the
twin ground POLISHED PLATE system.
- 1959 FLOAT GLASS was launched on
the UK Market, invented by Sir Alistair Pilkington.
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