10 years ago this month Glass Age reported that the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints about a Pilkington national press campaign which claimed that ‘Pilkington K is so efficient it gives 30% better insulation than conventional double glazing’ and ‘it dramatically reduces the heat you waste ... and the size of your heating bills – by up to 25p in every pound’. The ASA pronounced that these savings were not achieveable on a typical house, while Pilkington remained optimistic.

Low emmissivity ‘K’ glass first came on the market in April 1989, and Pilkington licensed its technology to others including Saint-Gobain and Glaverbel.

Still, by November 1974 Mr and Mrs Joe Public were already firm believers in double glazing. In our ‘Hertfordshire Scene’ feature, 65 out of 70 buyers opted for double glazing on their new homes at a development in Tewin.

Also in this edition, ‘Largest In Britain’ referred to architect Paul Tvrtkovic’s ‘glazed envelope’ for the London Theatre in Drury Lane, which is currently playing the Mel Brooks musical The Producers.

Although dwarfed by newer projects, this superb example of ‘the glass age’ runs to a length of 296ft and is 48ft high. It features 43 galvanised steel mullions, each set 6ft 1 inch apart. Glazing was mainly half inch clear polished plate. The whole assembly of glass, mullions and framing was suspended from the underside of the roof slab by glazing contractor James Clark & Eaton Ltd.

Today there’s no trace of the ‘Iraqui’ Airways Tourist Information Centre on London’s Lower Regent Street, featured in August 1969’s Glass Age.

‘Look through the glazed open frontage, and – if you’re not too absorbed by your reflection in the backwall mirror – you will see curtain after curtain of plate glass fins, hanging below serrated glass fibre domes’, enthused Editor Allan Plowman. ‘It is the glassiest experience in years’.

How times have changed.

Source

Glass Age