A fantastic, modern era EDITORIAL GLASS CANADA April 2013 Volume 25 • Number 2 Glass technology is advancing faster than are most other building materials’. It is an exciting time to be in the industry and fun to contemplate the near future. We don’t do theme issues in Glass Canada where the magazine is all about some particular topic, but rather by accident this issue has turned out to have a lot of content about cutting edge technology. Our cover story takes a look at vacuum insulating glass and the new developments that may soon make it competitive with triple-glazed IGU. And Brian Burton hits a cautionary note in Fenestration Forum about our industry’s lack of investment in R&D and the pos-sible long-term consequences of such neglect. One of my favourite movies, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is about a 19th-century British naval captain (played by Russell Crowe) who is pursuing a French privateer off the coast of South America. The movie is remarkable in its realistic portrayal of life aboard a man-o’-war during the time of Napoleon, complete with scenes depicting young officers having broken arms amputated rather than NEXt IssUE set, weapons almost as likely to kill their wielders as • top Glass the enemy and cages full of livestock to feed the crew in the absence of refrigeration. Yet at one point in the • software movie, Crowe contemplates the elegant lines of a showcase model of the enemy ship and comments, “What a fantas-• bEC report tic, modern era we live in.” The irony of the line draws a chuckle from today’s audience. But the truth is, that era in history was one of amazing, magical-seeming advances in technology as western countries began to apply the scien-tific discoveries of the Enlightenment to technical problems in transportation, manufacturing, agriculture and warfare. Steam-powered machinery and ships, railroads, fertilizer, electric lights, the telegraph – all these were right on the horizon, with their attendant transformations to life and society. It would be a stretch to say we live in such an era now. Computers aside, much of the technology we use today has changed little since the Second World War. The exciting thing about the glass industry is that it is bucking this trend. The last few decades have seen major, fundamental changes in the way we build windows and even whole buildings using glass. Glass itself is being infused with a number of remarkable new powers, including super strength and the abil-ity to bounce or transmit specific levels and wavelengths of light and heat. We seem to be on the cusp of developing glass that will be as energy efficient as a solid wall, once solar heat gain effects are taken into account. Glass that can act as a computer display without visible electronics is not far off, nor is glass that can produce enough energy to power the building it encloses. It is, indeed, a fantastic, modern era we live in – at least for those of us in the glass industry. • Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, Ontario N3Y 4N5 EDITOR | Patrick FLANNERY pflannery@annexweb.com 226.931.0545 SALES MANAGER | Danielle LABRIE dlabrie@annexweb.com 519.429.5187 SALES ASSISTANT | Jarah STEFEK jstefek@annexweb.com 519.429.5183 | 888.599.2228 ext. 219 MEDIA DESIGNER | Gerry WieBe GROUP PUBLISHER | Martin MCANULTY mmcanulty@annexweb.com Publication Mail Agreement #40065710. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 530, SIMCOE, ON N3Y 4N5 e-mail: subscribe@glasscanadamag.com Printed in Canada, All rights reserved. Editorial material is copyrighted. Permission to reprint may be granted on request. ISSN 0843-7041 CIRCULATION e-mail: subscribe@glasscanadamag.com Tel: 866.790.6070 ext. 208 Fax: 877.624.1940 Mail: P.O. Box 530, Simcoe, ON N3Y 4N5 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada -1 Year $36.75 (includes GST) ($39.55 includes HST/QST) U.S.A. -1 Year $50.00 (in US dollars) Occasionally, Glass Canada will mail informa-tion on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. www.glasscanadamag.com @GlassCanadaMag 4 APRIL 2013 | GLASS CANADA
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