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According to National Geographic, float glass is one of the 1,000 most important, world-changing  inventions of all time. Quite an accolade, and an immense feather in the cap of one small, British family firm. Fostering a culture characterised by caring management, the democratic sharing of ideas and a hunger for innovation and success, Pilkingtons worked to perfect the creation of totally clear, flawless glass sheets which could be manufactured cheaply. Fifty years ago, they succeeded. And the possibilities suddenly seemed endless, as architects and designers were given their heads to create ever more improbable structures, where perfect glass walls and windows appear to exist without support. Just stop for a minute and look around, and you can see that the impact on our world is truly breathtaking: the Gherkin, the roof of the Great Court at the British Museum, the Eden Project, the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, Beijing’s Olympic National Grand Theatre’s ‘eggshell’, the German Huf Haus houses, the new Jaguar XJ, Renault’s Espace; all would have been impossible without the invention of the float glass process. Window glass was originally intended simply to let light in and to keep the weather out, but its use and application have steadily expanded, until today it has evolved into a huge family of products. Its properties can be modified to keep heat in or keep heat out; it may be coloured to impact upon its environment; or it can be reflective to blend with it. It may be thick enough to stop a bullet, or thin enough to be sent into space. It is no exaggeration, then, to say that float glass has literally and fundamentally changed our landscape – and our lives – the world over. The prime quality of glass is that it is invisible. The less you are conscious of the glass itself (rather than its colour or coating), in a window, a car windscreen or a mirror, the more valuable it is. The magic of the float process is that it gave the world the capability of making a valuable, invisible product more cheaply than ever before. To achieve invisibility glass has to be flawless: perfectly flat, totally uniform, and free from any distortion or contamination. We now take this for granted, but in the early 1950s, before the advent of the float process, such perfection was rare and very expensive. This is an account of ‘one of the great process inventions of the [twentieth] century’. It tells how Pilkingtons became the global pioneer in float glass production and development, about how it has always been regarded as the technical leader, with the breadth of experience, the latest developments and the expertise to supervise manufacture. It is a fascinating story of creativity, innovation and vision, of extraordinary invention, of a small family-run enterprise, based in a Lancashire coal-mining town, which made the most of a unique window of opportunity, as it were. In doing so they revolutionised not only themselves but also architecture, construction, car design, space travel. In short, Pilkingtons’ glass revolution changed the world.

David Bricknell joined Pilkington Brothers in 1974 as a lawyer, going on to spend 24 years with the company. He took part in a number of the negotiations and projects described in this book, working with most of the major characters, and ending up as Group Legal Advisor and Company Secretary. In 1997 he left Pilkingtons, later embarking on research into what is arguably Pilkingtons’ most influential innovation. In his spare time he is literally a ‘silver surfer’, taking to the waves as often as he can!

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FLOAT: Pilkingtons’ glass revolution by David Bricknell, is published by Crucible Books in hardback at £20, ISBN 978-1-905472-11-6. Visit Carnegie's online shop to buy Float NOW with great prices and shipping direct from the publisher. It is available from all booksellers or can be ordered direct by telephoning the publishers on 01524 840111, or visiting www.carnegiepublishing.com

Contact the publishers at: Carnegie Publishing Carnegie House Chatsworth Road Lancaster LA1 4SL Tel: 01524 840111 / 840333 Email: anna[at]carnegiepublishing.com