THROUGH THE AGES

Evening Star, Issue 23381, 26 September 1939, Page 3

THROUGH THE AGES

ROMANTIC HISTDRY OF GLASS GREAT INFLUENCE OF CRYSTAL PALACE MODERN OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW DESIGNS The history of glass through the ages was traced as far as the mid’eighties in an article last week, and this concluding survey details the industrial recognition on a large 1 scale of glass, beginning with the , , Great Exhibition in London in 1851, This exhibition saw the allglass building really come into its own. A competition was called for a structure to house the exhibition, but the design submitted by the Building Committee to the commissioners was quite impracticable. The publication of the drawings drew a storm of public protest and ridicule. GIGANTIC GLASSHOUSE. Paxton’s design was submitted after the closing date of the competition and was ineligible for consideration. It was, however, seen and approved by Prince Albert. This led to its publication in the ‘ Illustrated London News,’ and the public outburst against the accepted design and in favour of Paxton’s was so great that tho committee were reluctantly forced to accept it. So the great Crystal Palace came into being, practically by accident. It covered IS acres of ground and was a third of a mile long. Four hundred and fifty feet wide, it contained 900,000 square feet of glass, weighing more than 400 tons. In its construction 3,300 iron columns were used, and these ranged up to 22ft in length. There were 205 miles of wooden sash bars. Costing £150,000. the building Was. completed in 17 weeks. In one week 18,392 panes of glass were fixed, and in one day one glazier fixed 10S panes, covering an area of 367 ft. The building was eventually dismantled and re-erected at Sydenham, where it served a variety of purposes. It came to an , untimely end, as spectacular as its beginning, when it was destroyed by fire on the night of November, 30, 1936. Three .years after the building of the Exhibition Joseph Paxton was once more before the public eye with a scheme to “encircle tho Metropolis of London with an immense glass arcade 1H miles long.” It is, perhaps, fortunate that this project never eventuated. A MEDIUM DISCOURAGED. The Crystal Palace was probably the commencement of the glass age, which is still developing. At the same time the enthusiasm for glass was discouraged by the more academic of the architects of those days. They considered that the medium was too cold and unsympathetic. In the eighteenth century glass began to find its way intb shop windows, which had previously been unglazed. For a long time it was in very small panes with ponderous glazing bars, often as much as 2iu thick. A marked improvement was effected during the latter half of tho eighteenth century. Glazing bars became more refined in proportion at the same time that the quality and the size of the glass were greatly improved. Many fine examples of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century shop fronts still survive in England, most of which are in the provincial centres. Shop fronts, like every other form of art, suffered through the unaccountably execrable taste of the Victorian era, and the nineteenth century examples show a retrograde step from those of the preceding century. Plato glass has completely revolutionised the design of shop fronts and opened up entirely new opportunities. It has made possible the glazing of whole windows in one unit, and the appearance of shop and store premises has undergone a vast change since its introduction. It is, however, at times subjected to an unsympathetic treatment, and its abuse has opened up a new architectural problem. This is the excessive use of plate ,in show windows, with the result that the superstructure has the appearance of floating on glass. MODERN INNOVATIONS. Brought about mainly by the desire of the shopkeeper to obtain every available inch of advertising and show space, it is extremely difficult to combat. It is significant, however, that the two principal stores in the city of Sydney have adopted the more modern method of framing tho windows in between strong piers which give to the building the desired appearance of stability.

Such a method actually adds to the advertising value of the window, for, by providing it with a frame, it simplifies the window dresser’s work, enables him to execute a more tasteful and finished display, and thus attract _more public attention.

The introduction of bonds has, to some extent, negatived the undercutting effect. They suggest, by reason of their vertical emphasis, some feeling of support. The vertical highlights reflected from the bend still further emphasise this illusion of support. The introduction of steel-frame construction, and the consequent flatter facades, has provided present-day designers with the opportunity of correcting the heavy beetling effect of the masonry upper stories of the Victorian era. It has also suggested a new use for glass in architecture—or. rather, the revival of an old one. That is, as buildings are now faced with a veneer over the curtain walls of the new construction, why should that veneer not he glass?