Glass is a fundamental piece of much of our modern lives. From the windows of our automobiles, to the screens of some computers and televisions, to the panes of our aluminum windows and vinyl windows. Glass is an indispensable component of any building project. Storm doors, patio doors and vinyl windows of every kind require the same common denominator, glass. If you’ll remember, last month we set out to look at the history of glass and the process of the evolving ideas and techniques that have led to our current conception of glass. We traced the rough beginnings of glass in the form of glazes found early pots and artifacts discovered in the middle east. Moving from there, we found glass in various forms throughout history up until about the middle ages where we left off last month. At this point glass was not like the glass in the vinyl windows we know and love today. No, at this point glass was much more brittle and breakable. Humans had not discovered the processes of annealing or tempering which drastically improved the quality and durability of glass allowing for the construction grade material which is found in all Croft windows.

The history we are uncovering is one that needed to happen if energy efficient windows were ever to become a reality. If glass had stayed the way it was, there would be no energy star windows certified to ensure energy tax credits and a host other benefits. Without the innovations that have helped to make our vinyl widows a reality today, glass could still be taking the shape of fulgurate (glass formed when lightning strikes sand) and obsidian (glass formed from sand melted by the incredible intensity of volcanic activity). Glass is a naturally occurring thing, but without human inventiveness and modification, it never would’ve taken the shapes of the vinyl windows, patio doors, windshields, and televisions screens we know today. Luckily it did, and Croft has the proof with vinyl window, aluminum windows, and patio doors of every shape and size.