We call it ‘window shopping’. We walk along the High Street, stare at the clothes or other products in the windows, but probably take for granted the glazing through which we’re gazing. However, the allure of the artfully arranged window displays that draw us in to spend money only works because of the developments in glass-making techniques that made such ‘walls’ of glass possible.
In the late 17th century, the French began using grinding and polishing techniques to produce the first plate glass, but at that time it was something only the rich could aspire to own. The French Revolution and the English Industrial Revolution coincided with a revolution in glass manufacturing, using compressed air to produce better, flatter, glass panes.
By the 1860s, store and office buildings were using plate glass. In the 20th century, machines could produce sheet after sheet of flat glass for windows. That glass became stronger and tints were applied. In 1903, bullet proof glass was ‘accidentally’ discovered when a French chemist, Edouard Benedictus, dropped a glass beaker on the floor. It didn’t break completely apart as it was coated with plastic cellulose nitrate.
When Henry Gordon Selfridge came to build his Oxford Street store in the early 1900s, he invested £400,000 (a small fortune) acquiring a series of Georgian buildings and turning them into a steel framed, five-storey department store. The store opened in 1909, complete with cast iron window frames and glass windows measuring over 19 feet by 12 feet. A revelation, now passers-by were confronted with merchandise displays that drew them in. ‘Lifestyle’ tableaux, seasonal goods, working televisions – the windows provided a 3D advertising hoarding.
In the 1950s Sir Alistair Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff, developed the ‘float’ glass manufacturing technique (produced by heating a furnace to 1500°C and then allowing the molten liquid inside the furnace to flow through molten tin). The molten glass floats because the density of materials is different and it is this technique that gives the flatness to the surface of the glass. This float glass became commercially successful during the 1960s and is still manufactured and in use across the world today.
Contribution to Retail History
The shop window displays made possible by these glazing techniques became key to the retailers’ ability to persuade passing trade to step through the door. In the age of online shopping, the role of window merchandising is even more vital. Since many customers go out as much to browse as to buy, the power of attraction rests heavily on the view through the window. Today, glass has become a key component of retail architecture for some brands – witness Apple stores’ use of it as a central tenet of their retail design philosophy.