The History of Double Glazing

The origins of double glazing are somewhat shrouded in mystery, some reports suggest that homes in Scotland, Germany and Switzerland had double glazing fitted as early as the1870s, although this is unlikely to have been a double glazed sealed unit fitted into a frame and is more likely to have been more akin to secondary glazing with a second piece of glass retrofitted to the existing window, most likely using a putty.
The invention of modern double glazed sealed units is accredited to American C D Haven who invented the sealed unit that we are familiar with today. Originally invented in 1930 but due to costs setbacks and world war two it wasn’t until 1952 that the double glazed windows finally reached the market (Source: History Revealed) 
It wasn’t until the late 1970’s, early 1980s that double glazing really took off in the UK teamed with the rising popularity of u-PVC as a building material, especially for use with in window frames, helped push double glazing into the forefront of people’s homes and minds when looking for stylish and economical home improvements.
As you may have read in last week’s articles 2018 marks Thetford Home Improvement Service’s 38th anniversary, coinciding with the beginning of uPVC and double glazing’s popularity in the UK. Since 1980 we have served 10,000s of customers across the region providing them with the highest quality double glazing available and more. You can read more about that here.
Like everything else the double glazed window has evolved considerably over time with the introduction of dehydrated air and or inert gasses such as argon between the two panes designed to improve the insulating quality of the window. There have been various other tweaks and changes to double glazing over the years, but the basic principle of double glazing itself hasn’t changed too much.
However, because of these small tweaks today’s product thermally performs a lot better than its predecessors. Some of the more obvious changes to double glazed windows have been aesthetic ones with an almost infinite range of colours, styles, finishes and configurations available today. 

To find out more about modern double glazing visit our windows page, or contact us with any questions.