FACTORALY - E56 WINDOWS

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Where would we be without windows? We wouldn't know, because we wouldn't be able to see out and work out where we were! From humble beginnings as holes in the wall, windows have come a long way, with whole buildings now seemingly being made from one enormous window! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Good morning, Simon. Good morning, Bruce. How are you? I'm quite well, thank you very much indeed for asking. How are you? Glad to hear it. I am not too bad. I mean, I've always said good morning. It could be good evening. It could be good night. That's true.

It could be sleep tight. It could be anything. That's true. This could be happening at any time of the day. Yes. It's only morning for us here in our little world. And our world is, what's it called again? Our world is called, wouldn't it be great if we actually had a country?

Our world is called Factorily. And Factorily is a weekly podcast with me, Simon Wells. And me, Bruce Fielding. Actually, that world is inhabited, isn't it, by factorolites, which is you. It is. They're all over the place, everywhere. I met a factorolite the other day. I went round to Bruce's place and met one of his friends. And before I'd walked into the room, this chap said,

that's really weird, I recognise your voice from the podcast. This is the first time I've seen you in the flesh. There are factorolites everywhere. Some of whom we know in person, some of whom we don't. Yes, yes. And if we don't yet, we may soon. You never know. So we are here to bring you fascinating fun facts on a particular theme. We take mundane things and make them interesting.

So we take a new subject. This week's subject, chosen by our random subject generator, is basically something fairly transparent, actually. It's reasonably clear, isn't it? Yes is um you know where where one of them closes another one opens i thought that was doors no you're right it is doors and we're talking about windows because they know that because they've read it on the title of the piece it's no surprise is it really it's not what may come as a surprise to you is that we're going to try not to talk about microsoft very much honestly it's been so hard.

We take a subject, we go away, we do our own research, we come back. I've had such a difficult job searching around on the internet for interesting facts about Windows without getting interesting facts about Windows, the software. Yes. Shall we talk about the history of the window first or do you want to talk about microsoft first um let's go with windows the window the bit of glass in the wall let's go with that first okay because that's what i instantly associate so the so basically the the window was a essentially a hole in the wall that you could see out of.

Yes, basically. That's the end of our information. Good night. So the first sort of windows were holes. But then they started to put shutters up. And we still have shutters today. I mean, I love it when you go abroad and they've got those button-operated shutters. They're sort of metal.

They clank down. Oh, yes, I know what you mean. And they've got little slits in them to let the light in, unless you push the button extra, and then they sort of clam up. I automatically go towards the wooden shutters in France and Austria and places like that. Yeah, the Louvre shutters.

Them. That's the ones. But yes, essentially, whether you put glass in it, whether you put shutters over them, whether you cover them in whatever you cover them in, a window. I mean, if we go, we seem to be quoting ancient Egypt an awful lot recently. I don't think ancient Egypt necessarily invented everything. It's just that they're really old. So that if they had them, that's one of the earliest examples we have.

There are examples of windows in ancient egyptian architecture not in the pyramids um i found one source that said no of course there aren't windows in in the pyramids everyone's dead they don't need them um but in general architecture yeah you know they had when they had holes in the walls they had holes in the uh ceilings to sort of let light through. I love this fact. The etymology of the word window, it comes from an old Norse word, two words put together, vindra, meaning wind,

and orga, meaning eye. Oh, okay. So a window is a wind eye. Isn't that lovely? They do say the eyes are the windows of the soul, don't they? They do indeed, yeah. So eyes and windows kind of the soul don't they they do indeed yeah yes their eyes and windows kind of i guess yeah so they're there to let the wind through they're

there to ventilate they're there to let light in they're there to let um maybe smoke out if you're in an old you know iron age roundhouse and you've got a fire in the center and you've got smoke billowing all over the place might be useful to have a little hatch in the roof you could open to yes that's more of a skylight there really isn't it well it is and it isn't so i i had a look around you sort of think you think of a window you think a window is a fairly easy thing to define wouldn't you yes but it applies to an awful lot of things i looked on the merriam webster dictionary a window is an opening especially in the wall of a building for to define wouldn't you yes but it applies to an awful lot of things i looked on the merriam-webster dictionary a window is an opening especially in the wall of a building for admission of light and air that is usually closed by casements or sashes containing transparent material such as glass

and capable of being opened and shut okay that's you know that sounds like a window i then went and looked on a on a particularly popular online encyclopedia website um and it listed all the different types of windows probably probably not all the types of windows but i'm going to take a deep breath and just this is one of the worst written sentences i've ever seen in my life come on we're voiceovers we've read worse sentences than this types of window include the eyebrow window fixed window hexagonal window single and double hung sash window horizontal sliding sash window casement window awning window hopper window tilt and slide window open door size window tilt and turn window transform window sidelight window window window don't know what

that is jalous or louvered window celestry window lancet window skylight roof window roof lantern bay window oriental window thermal or duclosian window picture window rose window emergency exit You didn't mention bay windows. I did, but I did it too fast. Wow. So there's quite a lot of windows. That's a lot of windows. So in that are skylights and things. Yes.

So big generic term that applies to a lot of windows. So in that are skylights and things. Yes. So big generic term that applies to a lot of stuff. Yeah, okay. We talked about sort of covering the window up, a window being a place to let light in. Yes. Often that didn't necessarily mean that you were able to see out of it. Okay. So, for example, you would cover your window in sort of animal skin, parchment,

very thin layer of parchment, so that you would get light. Yeah. So it would be translucent. Yeah. But it wouldn't be transparent. Okay, fine. That's kind of the forerunner of frosted glass windows, isn't it?

Well, I guess, yes. You have frosted or patterned windows in your in your bathroom for instance so that you can get the light in but it's not clear enough for people to see yes they also used to use shavings of um animal horn oh really yeah huh so that was another way of getting getting light without being able to see through yes i mean if you don't fill them with something they're just a hole in the wall it could get a bit drafty could get wet when it rains that's true so when did glass windows come in uh the glass windows first came up with let's all say it together now one two three the romans oh interesting it was the romans this time was it the romans okay so the romans started using glass they had a process by which they blew some glass you know you get molten glass on the end of a blowpipe they blew it into a sort

of a cylindrical um jar shape really okay and then they just squashed it flat into a small pane so sort of a small square you know five inch pane of glass yeah um and they they embedded those into the wall or into woodwork or whatever and yeah, so Romans. Well done to Romans. Well, let's move it right along then from the history of windows to window cleaning.

Okay, yes, all right. So cleaning a window of a house is quite easy because houses aren't that high. Sure. So you just kind of climb out of a window or so cleaning a window of a house is quite easy because houses aren't that high sure so you just kind of climb out of a window or sit in a window and just sort of do the outside yeah or you get a ladder and do the outside which is pretty straightforward that's a bit trickier when you do things like multi-story buildings yes so they have these now glass curtain walls which are kind of they are windows but they're of, looks like a whole load of glass around the building. Yes. Okay. So sort of, I'm thinking of the modern office buildings in London.

Yes. I mean. Are they really windows or is the entire thing just made of glass? Exactly. I mean, it's like a glass cladding. Yes. And that started in about 1885 in Chicago. Oh, really? There was the home insurance building in Chicago, which was 138 feet high and 10 stories. And cleaning the windows on that was quite interesting.

They would basically, when they built the building, they would put like eye holes in sort of metal eyes in the building. So that people could strap themselves to the outside of the building and clean the windows that way. And then cleaners wore a belt like an electrical lineman and they would climb out of the window and attach each end of the belt to the hooks. And then they would lean back against the belt with their toes on the ledges. Yeah. It's very labour intensive and difficult. And scary. And very scary. Then they sort of thought, actually, we don't have to go out of the window.

We can go off the roof. Yes. And going off the roof is quite interesting because they call that abseiling. Yes. And although that was used back in 1876, actually, one of the things that promoted that way of cleaning windows was the Vietnam War. How so? Because people were used to jumping out of helicopters. Oh, you're kidding.

So people were trained to get a hold of a rope and and abseil out of a helicopter to get to the ground quickly yeah and vets returning from vietnam used use these systems and they adapted them to the window cleaning industry so you had an awful lot of window cleaners who were vietnam veterans yes how interesting never realized because they had no fear of heights you know yeah and it Yeah. And it's a good job. Yeah. And they would get up with their squeegee. Yeah.

Talk of squeegees, actually. They go back to the Middle Ages. Do they? There was a thing called a squilgee. Okay. Which was used by fishermen to scrape fish guts from the boat decks. Brilliant. But then somebody invented the Chicago squeegee, which was a pretty awful thing.

It was heavy and cumbersome, and it had like 12 screws holding the whole thing together. Okay. But then an Italian immigrant to America, a guy called Ettore Staccione, who invented a lightweight brass squeegee. Right. And it's so efficient that it's still basically the same as the one that he invented in 1936. Yeah.

And in fact, the Staccone company still makes and manufactures window cleaning equipment. Really? Yeah. Whenever I think of someone cleaning the windows on an office block, I think of those cradles that are sort of mounted to the side of the building and slowly winch you down and then carry you left and right. Yes, they have either tracks or fixed telescopic units. That's right, yeah. Nowhere are those more useful than at one of the highest buildings in the world, in fact, the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. Yes, the hotel in Dubai. Yes. So that's 2,700 feet high, roughly,

and it features 24,500 windows. Good grief. It's about 1.3 million square feet of glass. Well, that's an ongoing job, isn't it? To clean those windows, there are 18 permanently installed tracked and fixed telescopic maintenance units. There's a group of 36 people who have to wear protective clothing resembling moon suits. Because if you think about it, you're in Dubai, you're on a reflective surface in the air, and it gets really, really, really hot. So they wear these suits which resemble moon suits to shield them from that intense heat, which can get up to like 50 degrees centigrade. Wow. And they still use like soap and squeegees to do the work.

But there are all sorts of interesting windows. I mean, not just on buildings. There are windows everywhere. You get them in your car? sorts of interesting windows. I mean, not just on buildings. There are windows everywhere. You get them in your car? Yep. Car windows. Well, there's two different sorts of glass in cars generally. There's laminated and safety glass.

Okay. So safety glass is, you know, when you smash a side window of a car, you get those little tiny little bits of glass that look ever so pretty. Yes. When it falls out, there are no sharp edges on it. It doesn't actually cut to you. Oh, I see what you mean it all yeah it sort of crumbles yeah exactly the plan is that if something goes through a window in a car from the side um it's not going to you know rip your face up i say because because the glass isn't sharp right each individual

shard is not sharp okay whereas the the frontscreen, you really want it to be a bit more, I mean, if a stone hits that and it goes immediately opaque, that would be a bad thing. So you want that to be what's called a laminated glass. Right. So that's two or sometimes three

sheets of glass with like a plastic double-sided sheet between the two bits of glass that hold it together. And so if something tries to smack that piece of glass okay that hold it together and so if something tries to smack that piece of glass it it won't it won't break right i see it'll it'll crack yeah but it won't it won't actually fall into different pieces right so so that's why the side windows of cars are usually safety glasses because if you you know if you're in a situation where you need to get out of the car you need a window that you can smash fairly easily where you need to get out of the car, you need a window that you can smash fairly easily. Yes, you need to break out of, don't you?

But on the other hand, if you're up at sort of 35,000 feet, you don't really want a window that's going to... You really don't. So generally the windows in aeroplanes are triple glazed. Right. And they're not glass at all, they're polycarbonate. Okay. And have you ever noticed there's a little hole in an airplane window

no have you not no next time you get in an airplane have a look at the window and you'll see there's a tiny little hole like a pinhole at the usually at the bottom and that's to aid with a pressurization equalization oh right okay so what you don't want is like as the plane goes up you definitely don't want the windows being sucked out of the aeroplane. No, I mean, I could tell you that. But they do make an aeroplane a lot heavier. Right. So technically, if you had an aeroplane without windows, like, for example, a cargo plane, it's significantly lighter than a passenger plane. Because the passengers want to see out and see what's going on.

Yes, of course. Cargo doesn't have that preference. No, exactly. I mean, apart from at the front. That's quite important. Yes. There are companies now that are looking at replacing the windows in aeroplanes with screens. Oh, what, like TV screens with a camera on the outside showing you what you would be looking at if you had a window? Exactly. Exactly. They weigh a lot less.

Yeah. Also, they don't have to do the structural work on the window. Exactly. Exactly. They weigh a lot less. Yeah. Also, they don't have to do the structural work on the plane. Yeah. And they don't have to be oval because on an aeroplane window, they're usually oval because they tried square windows

and there were stress cracks at the corners. Oh, I see. So that's why you'll never see square windows on a modern aeroplane. Huh. There's a company at the moment

which is working on screens and not just like a screen per window but a screen going down the whole length of the aeroplane and also the whole roof oh wow so when when you're sitting down it basically looks like you're sitting in a seat in the sky that's fantastic and they've got like cameras on the wings okay i kind of want to try that yeah i'll put a picture in the show notes it does look incredible i would be very happy doing that yeah i had a quick look at um a particular type of window i was reminded of a fact completely unrelated to this but a fact that a friend of mine one of our dear factorialites shared with me a little while ago. I just never realised it before.

It's something I've walked past so frequently, but had never considered the origin of. You know when you walk past an old pub, for instance, or an old Victorian shop window, the panes of glass are square or rectangular in a wooden framework. And every now and then, one of them has a sort of a circular dimple in the middle of it yes of course i thought that was you know you talk about the romans blowing glass yeah and then flat flattening um yes jars i thought that was like that it's very similar to

that so they they just made a sort of a cylindrical jar shape cut it off the piece of equipment they were using to make it and squashed it flat these things these bullseyes this is a type of glass making called crown glass which first came into prominence in europe in the 14th century was particularly popular in england in the 16 1800s which is why you sort of see it on a lot of buildings of that that era so essentially you blow a bit of glass into a sort of a bowl shape and then you spin spin the rod, the blowpipe, which is called a pontil, apparently. You spin it really fast, and centrifugal force makes that bowl of molten glass flatten and widen into a disc. We'll put a link to a video of this up on the show notes.

Oh, cool. So, yes, they just spin it into a disc. And these things can be quite big. They can be made up to five or six feet in diameter this disc of glass um and then they cool it and then they detach the blowpipe but what you end up with in the middle is a little scar where the blowpipe was attached and where the blowing first first occurred yes um so because of the way this thing was made because it it the centrifugal force stretches it out the edges of the glass are thinner and more transparent and better quality so you would cut

bits of that off to make a glass for expensive windows for you know sort of stately homes you think of a stately home or a church it has lots of small diamonds or rectangles of glass in a lead framework so those are the cutoffs from the edge of the glass. And towards the centre, the glass is thicker, not as clear. You know, it's a little bit bobbly. So that would be used for cheaper windows in public buildings, such as pubs. So if you look at the front of a pub dating from 1600 to 1800 odd, you have several panes of glass that are quite good quality.

And then there's just that one random one in the middle that has the lump of circular blobby glass on it right and those are called bullseyes but i've walked past a hundred pubs like that and i've never even stopped to think about why that was the case and yes yeah how fascinating there's a shop in central London which sells furniture, which has the most unusual windows that you've ever seen. OK. It's on Tottenham Court Road. Yeah.

And it's a shop called Heels. I know it, yes. And if you look at the shop windows of Heels, they're sort of J-shaped. Oh. And the reason that they're J-shaped is so that there is no reflection coming from the street, so it looks like you're looking straight into the showroom oh how wonderful so they're specially

made just for heels how interesting this sort of combining lots of small pieces of glass into one large piece is kind of the thing behind churches there are some amazing stained glass windows yes which i didn't look at all into i did a little bit of a look so um there, there are some amazing stained glass windows in the world which I didn't look at all into I did a little bit of a look so there are a few different ways of making the glass for stained glass windows, one is the thing I just described crown glass, another one is

you can blow a large cylinder of glass cut down the middle and flatten it out to make a sheet and then you just cut bits off that and put them into place. I guess you add sort of various different minerals, like something that would make the glass green or brown. That's it.

So they put metal oxide powder or really, really small metal filings into the glass whilst it's still molten so that that melts in and lends its colour to it. And they use different metallic oxides to make different colours. So if you add a bit of copper, it can make a sort of a bluey-green colour. If you add cobalt, it'll make a darker blue. And apparently, if you put gold oxide into molten glass, it makes it dark red or violet.

Oh, okay. And traditionally, thinking of the pictures depicted in a stained glass window we've talked on our previous episodes about the fact that red cloth and purple cloth was always really expensive to make because it was harder to create the dye yeah so how perfect that depicting that in stained glass is also really expensive because you have to use gold oxide isn't that great? Wow. Stained glass windows have been around for a very long time. I found out that the oldest stained glass window is probably from a cathedral in Bavaria in Germany

called the Augsburg Cathedral. And there's a bit of stained glass window in there which dates back to around 1065. Golly. It's a bit dull. It's mainly yellow. Not an awful lot of colour in it, but still. But the thing is, it may have been colourful at one point. It may well have been, and then faded

off. Yeah. Yes. The oldest one in the UK is in Canterbury Cathedral. And this bit of stained glass window was made around 1130. And that's still rather colourful. The biggest one, we usually have a little Guinness World Record bit at the end, but I'm throwing these in here because they're contextual. Yes. The biggest stained glass window in the world is in a place in America called Justice, Illinois, and it's in a chapel at the Resurrection Cemetery. And this stained glass window, goodness me, it's 100 feet wide and 40 feet high. Blimey.

It's an entire wall of this building. What's it depicting? Jesus. It's an entire wall of this building. What's it depicting? Jesus. It's in a church. And it's just massive. I sort of looked at a photo of it and I thought, oh, that's a nice stained glass window. It's got all the little rectangular panels.

That's lovely. And then you zoomed in a bit and there was a couple standing within one of these rectangular panes of glass. Wow. It's just, it's huge again we'll put a photo up on the factorly.com website fantastic we did say at the beginning that we had trouble researching this without coming across microsoft yes i don't think we need to tell people lots and lots about it. I mean, everybody uses Microsoft. 70% of the world uses a Microsoft product.

Yes. I think most of you know what Windows is. Yes, yes. But things that you may not know, I mean, you know the startup sound. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. When they started Windows 3.1, it was a pretty awful startup sound. So in 1994, they sort of thought rather than software engineers maybe we should have a musician have a crack at this great idea so they thought who's

like a an innovative musician that we could get to do the microsoft sound and given that they're microsoft they have lots of money sure yeah so they asked brian eno no way so brian eno came up with that first sound really windows 95 yeah it about seven seconds, which is twice as long as the brief. But it's such an iconic Sonic logo. I remember reading a little while ago about smart windows. Oh, yes. I tried to do some in-depth research into this, and it's just too confusing. So I stopped. But essentially, smart windows, there are buildings these days where the windows are tinted in reaction to something,

either temperature or an electric pulse or whatever. So you could be looking out of a perfectly clear window. And as the day goes on and the sun changes angle and it gets a bit hot, these windows will actually take a trigger from that temperature and do some kind of magic to make them tinted. Whether that's, there are different methods. You can have a sheet of lining in between the panes of glass that is electronically triggered. You can get some windows that have um liquid crystals inside which are

aligned in a certain way when they're triggered and therefore they make the glass look frosty they use polarization i think don't they that as well they polarize one way to make them clear and then they polarize in sort of 90 degrees yes that exists as well you can have windows which are clear when you're looking out of them from one angle but they're opaque from another angle there's a block of flats near the Tate Modern in London that uses these windows so that the people inside can look out through the windows and enjoy the lovely views of the Thames, but the people down on street level outside,

when they look up, because of that polarisation, the glass is opaque, so they can't see in. You can get these things to be triggered by an electric switch. You can just stand there and flip a switch and decide whether your windows are see-through or not. Well, they have those in offices now, don't they? They used to have like Venetian blinds in offices. And now they have a button that you press and it opaques the window so that you don't actually see what's going on inside the office. Isn't that clever?

And in fact, those windows that you're talking about that tint, they use those on modern aeroplanes as well. So when you're, rather than having like a blind that comes down, you press a button. Oh, I see. And the window goes dark. Isn't that clever? Mm-hmm. So I mentioned earlier on how the word window comes from an old Norse word meaning wind high.

There's also a Latin word for windows, which some, you've seen it already. No, no, I just know about fenestration and defenestration. You know where we're going. So the Latin for window is fenestra. And some other European languages have incorporated that to use as the word for window. So Sweden and Germany, their words for window are based on fenestra. And the most interesting thing I know about fenestra is the fact that there was an event called the Second Defenestration of Prague in 1618. Yes. And to defenestrate means to chuck someone or something out of a window. De-fenestra.

Yes. And apparently this was a relatively common practice in Prague. No, absolutely. We did it in the UK as well. Oh, we've done it all over the place. Yes. They did it in Die Hard, you know. But yes, there was a particular event,

the second defenestration of Prague, can't remember when the first one was, happened in Prague Castle in 1618 during the bohemian revolt and three chaps were promptly defenestrated and that's what started the 30-year war apparently wow okay um quite a simple action leading to quite a large chunk of of history um there's a wonderful report talking about this this event and um it says, it was done in good bohemian style. Okay. As if there's a bohemian way

to chuck someone out of a window. I don't know. Yes. But yes, defenestration, one of my favourite words. Yes. One of my favourite country and western songs is called,

Pick a Window, Jim, You're Leaving. Wow. Jim's about to get defenestrated well that's all the facts I've got on on Windows yes I think we're pretty much done actually I expect there are many many more things to talk about but um those are our select few findings for you yes you. You're welcome. So if you've enjoyed listening to us rabbiting on about Windows, there's plenty more where that came from.

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