V is for Vita Glass

Vita glass was apparently a true glass of high quartz content, which was developed in the 1920s by Francis Edward Everard Lamplough of Cambridge University. The glass, which allowed invisible ultraviolet rays to penetrate, was made in a factory in Birmingham. The belief at the time was that ultraviolet rays of sunlight were considered healthy: ironically, today we sometimes cover our windows in a plastic film which does exactly the opposite!

Other names associated with this development are Sir Leonard Erskine Hill, and Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell. Vita glass was used in London Zoo Reptile House, and is still evident there. Around 1926, all Birmingham schools had vita glass windows installed.

Locally, in Ratby, amongst the buildings on a poultry farm being auctioned in 1936, was a ‘Brooder House’ – a heated space for young chicks - of 12 feet by 8 feet, which was glazed in vita glass.

Meanwhile, a report in the Leicester Mercury of 4th February 1930, shared the council discussion about the high cost of council housing in Loughborough, when compared with that in Grantham, and somewhere, possibly near Doncaster, where there were council houses, fitted with vita glass which were rented out for as little as 3s. 3d.. Over in Loughborough, the cheapest council houses were let out at 8s. 7d. and didn’t take advantage of the new glass! Some council houses in Loughborough cost 16s. or 14s. a week to rent, but apparently the council were contributing 11d. for the houses on Derby Road, and 3d. for the houses in Shelthorpe.

One of the two companies that made vita glass was Pilkington. Now, the ‘new’ library at Loughborough University, officially opened in December 1980, is named the Pilkington Library, and I'm supposing the library was named in honour of William Henry Pilkington, Baron Pilkington (I believe known as Harry) who was Chancellor of Loughborough University from 1966-1980.

So, to end this short post, were there any houses in Loughborough that had vita glass windows, I wonder?

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I'm taking part in the A-Z April Blogging Challenge!!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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