Description

A window is an opening in a wall, door, rooforvehicle that allows the passage of light and, if not closedorsealed, air and sound.[1]

Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in someothertransparent or translucent material. Windows are held in placebyframes.[2] Many glazed windows may be opened, to allowventilation,or closed, to exclude inclement weather.[3] Windowsoften have alatch or similar mechanism to lock the windowshut.

Types include the eyebrow window, fixed windows, single-hunganddouble-hung sash windows, horizontal sliding sash windows,casementwindows, awning windows, hopper windows, tilt and slidewindows(often door-sized), tilt and turn windows, transomwindows,sidelight windows, jalousie or louvered windows,clerestorywindows, skylights, roof windows, roof lanterns, baywindows, orielwindows, thermal, or Diocletian, windows, picturewindows,emergency exit windows, stained glass windows, Frenchwindows, anddouble- and triple paned windows.

The Romans were the first known to use glass for windows,atechnology likely first produced in Roman Egypt, in Alexandriaca.100 AD. Paper windows were economical and widely used inancientChina, Korea and Japan. In England, glass became common inthewindows of ordinary homes only in the early 17th centurywhereaswindows made up of panes of flattened animal horn were usedasearly as the 14th century. In the 19th century Americanwest,greased paper windows came to be used by itinerantgroups.Modern-style floor-to-ceiling windows became possible onlyafterthe industrial plate glass making processes wereperfected.