In an American home or an English home when someone opens a window they will usually do so by pushing the pane of glass in a wood or metal frame upward to cover another pane of glass. There are other kinds of windows but the ones most people are familiar with are sash windows. Even children know how to open and close them and climb in and out of them. However, children are unlikely to know what the windows are called or anything about the origins of the sash window.
Many children never hear the word sash and window in the same sentence until someone reads to them the famous poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Even though it is a very famous poem and has defined how people think about Santa Claus no one is really sure any more who wrote it. That’s sort of like the way it is with sash windows.
The significant relationship between windows and sashes comes in the line where the author claims to have flown to the window “like a flash” and he says he “tore open the shutters and threw up the sash”. At this point some children with little knowledge of architecture but great powers of imagination require an explanation. They may ask why the author/narrator barfed up his bathrobe belt.
A fortunate child might be able to ask an understanding adult about why the man threw up his sash and receive a knowledgeable explanation about sash windows. This wise adult might explain that a window sash is the wooden (or more recently metal) panel that moves up and down and provides a frame for the pane of glass.
A bright child is likely to be so fascinated by this information that he or she will begin delving into history and learn about Robert Hooke who is credited with inventing the sash window in the 17th Century. He might have, although some people say he only got credit for it because Sir Isaac Newton was getting credit for all the really exciting discoveries and inventions. No one patented the invention and Newton and Hooke were probably much more interested in who got credit for gravity and things like that.
Actually there had been windows that slide up and down in use for a long time, probably since the 1200s. But windows didn’t have glass in them in those days so a sash window would have been more of a sliding wood panel. You could open it to let in light and bugs and air but it wouldn’t keep anything out unless it was closed.
The modern sash window came into being when the vertical sliding panel was combined with glass window panes and pulleys and weights to counterbalance the weight of the wood and glass so that the window could be opened by someone who did not possess super strength. One of the best places to explore the origins of the sash window is Ham House in England. It’s a National Trust Estate that is open to visitors and has sash windows that were installed in 1670.
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