Croft windows represent the culmination of centuries, even millennia, of human experience and understanding that has developed to allow the production of glass. The clear, durable, and energy efficiency glass we have come to know today, which exists in everything from vinyl windows and aluminum windows to every kind of patio door and storm door, didn’t invent itself over night; rather, it was the evolution and progression of technology and human development that has come to allow the ease with which we create glass products.

Early glassmaking was definitely a different process than the process used today to create the window glass used in new vinyl windows and replacement aluminum windows. Back in the “old days” glass making was slow and costly, not like the processes Croft utilizes for their vinyl window production today. Because glass was hard to make and difficult to find, it became a prized possession which was, at times, valued as much as exotic jewels. There was no shortage of demand, but technology had not advanced enough to allow the mass production we’ve come to know in modern times. So, let’s take a look at the progression that has led us to the world we know today where vinyl windows and aluminum windows are as common as the air we breathe.
The first known glass product dates back to about 3000 BC and it took the form of a glaze on the outside of ceramic material. Who knew that some five thousand years later, glass would be a common material used in construction, art, design, vinyl windows, aluminum windows, storm doors, and patio doors.

The progression of glassmaking was slow to build momentum and nearly fifteen hundred years after the advent of glass glaze, the first glass vessels were made. Now, this glass was certainly nothing like the glass we use commonly today, but it was one of the first ancestors that would one day spring forth windows of every kind; vinyl windows, aluminum windows, and every other kind of glass product for that matter owes their existence to the creator of that first glass jar. The next several thousand years would be a bumpy, but ultimately exciting and important ride for glass, glassmakers, and human kind in general. Next time we’ll look at some more of that progression and trace back the roots of Croft vinyl windows, aluminum windows, and patio doors.