History of Window Screens

What would you do without your screen door, or the screens in your home&#;s windows? What did people do before these things were invented? You might be surprised to learn that horse hair and cheese cloth played roles in the origins of what we now take for granted.

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The story of today&#;s metal, fiberglass or other synthetic wire screens goes back to the turn of the 19th century when sieves, used for sifting bran from meal, were made from horse hair.

Horse hair as a weaving and sieve material was ultimately unsatisfactory. Innovation led to its replacement by fine metal wire, with wire cloth being invented in the early &#;s. Wire cloth was soon being used to protect stored food such as meat and cheese. Other applications included ox muzzles, coal ash sifters, glue production and strainers for milk and other liquids.

At the time of the American Civil war (-65) a coating of paint was applied to wire cloth, provide protection from the elements, so that it could be sold as window screens. Until then, cheese cloth was sometimes used to prevent bugs from entering windows. The flimsy delicate nature of cheese cloth would have been a constant frustration. The new wire cloths quickly became popular, marking the beginning of the metal window screen industry. Painted iron wire was soon improved upon with galvanized iron. Towards the end of the &#;s, bronze, copper, brass then steel became popular materials for manufacturing screens. By the early &#;s, metal screens were easily available throughout North America.

Also in the early &#;s, a movement against flies and other insects was gaining momentum. The idea was spreading that insects weren&#;t just a nuisance &#; they spread disease. A common project for Boy Scout troops was to build and install residential window screens. At that time, screens were simply nailed to wooden frames. The smaller patches of screen left over from this process led to mini screens being attached to the end of a stick &#; the fly swatter.

By the mid &#;s, wire used in screens was being coated for increased durability. Further advances included the invention of the spline system to make replacing screens much easier, as well as attaching screens to frames much more secure. Spline, sometimes known as screen bead, is typically made of foam or vinyl.

Today, screens come in a myriad of materials, fibre sizes, mesh sizes and colours, and can be used for bug, sun and wind protection as well as privacy. Screens can still be attached to frames with spline or with even more secure zippered systems. They can be fixed in place or part of a retractable system, either manually operated or motorized. Screens cover small and large openings, even serving as retractable walls around patios and garage doors.

The future may see nanotechnology screens used to filter air. Researches are working towards a thin fabric that could be applied and removed from existing screens, and would filter out air particles, keeping indoors free of pollutants and allergens.

Screens play a critical role in providing protection and comfort in today&#;s homes and businesses. At Solaris, we are constantly on the lookout for new screen technology and applications. Our focus on screen and shade solutions keeps us up to date on what&#;s available to provide the results our customers want.

Call us today to find the best solution for your screen needs!

If you&#;re feeling inspired to improve your home with our range of blinds, shutters, screens and much more, you can get in touch with our expert design consultants. We&#;ll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit retractable fly wire screens.

As we write this, it&#;s the height of summer and the weather here in the UK is glorious. We love this time of year at Appeal Home Shading, but there&#;s one aspect that is mildly annoying; the insects. But whilst we&#;ve had more than one uninvited wasp turning up at a barbecue, we have managed to keep them out of our homes and offices thanks to our range of insect screens. 

These humble inventions are massively popular in America and you&#;ll find them in homes all over the country, especially in the warmer states. In the past few years, they&#;ve started to take off here too, and lots of houses in waterfront areas have benefitted from them. We&#;ve got a few amateur historians working for us and one day, they decided to satisfy their curiosity and look into the history of fly screens. Here&#;s what they found.

The Origins Of Insect Screens

Human beings have been using a variety of methods to keep pests out of their homes for centuries, but the first true insect screens appeared in America during the s. Enterprising businessmen came up with the idea of using wire to stop mosquitoes from entering homes, and the earliest known adverts appeared for them in The American Farmer, a farming journal from Baltimore. 

The idea didn&#;t take off and insect screens remained as obscure, niche products for several decades. That changed with the outbreak of the American Civil War. A Connecticut-based sieve company called Gilbert And Bennett suffered as they could no longer sell to the southern states, but were saved when one employee came up with an idea. They took the wire mesh from their surplus sieves, painted it to stop it from rusting and sold it for use as a window screen. These early screens were little more than rolls of wire cloth and homeowners had to nail them to their doors and windows, but they sold remarkably well.

The Idea Develops

Inevitably, more companies capitalised on this idea and fly screens started to develop from their basic origins. In , a firm called Bayley And McCluskey filed a patent for railroad car screens; specialised windows that stopped cinders and ashes from entering passenger trains. They weren&#;t specifically designed to stop insects, but this demonstrated how useful screens could be and further embedded them in the public consciousness. 

Painted window screens and frames soon developed, along with the first fly screens for doors. In October , E.T. Burrowes & Co published an ad claiming that they had installed screens for such notable figures as Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum and General Philip Sheridan, a famous Civil War veteran. Insect screens were no longer a novelty product sold by travelling salesmen to farming communities, they were an established part of home improvement in the United States. 

Insect screens for windows and doors were a distinctly American feature, but they&#;re now spreading throughout the rest of the world. They&#;ve come a long way since their early days and have even been credited for helping to stop the spread of diseases like typhoid and yellow fever.

And if this little trip through history has got you thinking about installing your own insect screens, you&#;ve come to the right place. You can find out more about our range of mesh fly screens by downloading a free brochure or you can book a design consultation. Get in touch today and let&#;s see if we can&#;t stop mosquitoes from invading your home this summer. 

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