Latest Window Cleaning News

Window cleaner catches pensioner, 68, looking at child porn: A pensioner could face jail after his window cleaner caught him looking at child porn. Simon Mountford (pictured), 68, of Preston, denied making indecent images of children, but was found guilty by the jury at Hull Crown Court. The widower was arrested by police in November 2008 after a window cleaner was polishing his bungalow's kitchen window and saw him looking at child porn. During his trial last week, Mountford denied downloading the images and blamed hackers for putting them on his computer. However, the jury convicted him. Detective Sergeant Rebecca Handley praised the window cleaner for coming forward to police. She said: "The window cleaner was doing his rounds in Preston and had gone to clean the windows of Mountford's home. "He could see him in the room sat at the computer and could see the monitor and at first he thought he was looking at adult porn. "Then he realised he was looking at children. "A warrant was issued for his arrest and police seized three computers and numerous hard drives. "Upon examination of his computer 67 encrypted files were found. "These were large files and the activity on the computer gave the belief these files contained indecent images. 

"If it hadn't been for the window cleaner he might never have been caught." Mountford refused to give police the passwords to enable them to open several encrypted files and, as a result, he was also charged with failing to disclose information. The trial came five years after Mountford was found not guilty at court of possessing indecent images of children. When he was 63, Mountford was arrested by police under Operation Ore after his credit card details were linked to American child porn sites. However, the jury believed his story that a virus corrupted his computer and he was found not guilty. The jury in his most recent trial were told Mountford had faced allegations of making indecent images of children previously. After just 45 minutes the jury found him guilty of one count of making indecent photographs of a child and seven counts of making indecent images of a child, which related to videos. The images found ranged from level one to level four – five being the most serious. He was also found guilty of failing to disclose protected information. Mountford will return to Hull Crown Court next month to be sentenced.

Clogged gutters could mean bigger problems: WEST KNOXVILLE, Tenn (WVLT) - You have to admit, Fall is a beautiful time in East Tennessee, but as the leaves change and fall- they could pile up in the wrong places. Chris Cox of Sparkling View says, "Clogged gutters can rot wood in your walls of house and flood your basement. So there is a lot of damage water can because of your gutters are clogged with leaves or granules from your roof." Chris Cox owns Sparkling View- a window and gutter cleaning service. He says homeowners should check their gutters and make sure they are clear of debris.. Cox says, "The real easy way to tell is if it is raining and you have a waterfall in front of door or gutter. Or if you see leaves sticking out, you have a problem you need to get it checked out." If you're not sure how often you should be checking, that depends on your yard. According to Cox, "If you don't have many trees, I recommend you get it checked once a year. We actually have some customers we do once a month, cause they have so many trees." His best advice, check and clean your gutters once in Autumn as the leaves fall and in the Spring after the trees bloom.

Makeover memories from the 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' build in Neenah - Geof White, Kaukauna: It was a Wednesday afternoon in August when I received the phone call. “Would you like to clean the windows for us at the ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ house in Neenah on Friday?” My reply, “What time do you want us there?” This was an honor. I was familiar with ‘EMHE.’ And the concept is great. A television show based on generosity. We had the opportunity to join all the other companies that came together and donated to the home, to the family. The TV crew was there to get things done. Everyone was hustling, contractors, TV people - everyone. My guys were excited to be there. It was a nice break from the normal work day. For the week before we were there, the house had 200 contractors stepping on each other trying to finish their various projects. But on Friday, the day the family came home, only three contractors were allowed near the house: cleaning crew, window cleaners and decorators. The house was amazing. Four-thousand square feet, laid out nicely with this cool hand scanner in the kids room to enter. I was impressed by what a good job all the other contractors had done. It was top quality and didn’t seem rushed at all. The seven of us arrived at 7 a.m. to clean the windows. It was like a set for a sitcom with all the cameras and Ty Pennington running around. One of my guys asked Ty to take a picture. Ty said “Sure!” and just kept running. Funny. We finished around noon and waited for the family to come home so we could yell “Move that Bus!” Honestly, it was a job that brought my employees together. It gave us a chance to all work together on something different and something with a cause. A great experience.

CareerCast celebrates Halloween with list of 10 scariest jobs: Next on the list is broadcast tower technician, which would be a nightmare for those with acrophobia (fear of heights) or astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning). Other jobs to avoid for those who prefer to stay firmly planted on the ground are window washer, high-rise welder and high-rise construction worker.

NATO frustrated amid Somali piracy deluge - "When we come across a boat with ladders on board, we can be sure they are pirates," says a senior member of Nato's anti-piracy task force. "After all, there are no known window-cleaning operations in the Indian Ocean." More often than not, when the international warships capture these pirates, they disarm them, leave them enough fuel to get back to Somalia and set them free. The pirates have even on occasion managed to get their engines overhauled courtesy of some naval expertise.

Nazi Youth? Comfort to know we're being watched - I have recently had an experience that made me aware of the importance of great neighbours and a great police service. On this particular Thursday, in anticipation of heavy rains and the possibility of clogging, overflow and leakage into our basement, I had the brilliant idea of quickly cleaning out a portion of the eavestrough on our two-storey home. I climbed out the second storey bedroom window and over the roof, and did a quick clean out. I was unaware that there were two children on their way to school who witnessed my scrambling over the roof and back through the window, into the house.

With great training and wonderful responsibility, they noted the house number and then reported it to an adult, who called 911 to report what they'd seen. Within 20 minutes there was a patrol car outside of our house, an officer asking questions at the front door and one checking the back of the house. Thank you, both to the bright and conscientious children for taking the time to report suspicious activity, and to the police officers for their speedy response. Sometimes it is a great comfort to know that we are being watched. Dan Sigler.

Last February at the Casino, Chicago’s elegant private club tucked behind the John Hancock Center, an exceptionally festive party brought together Chicago’s A listers. The occasion was a birthday celebration for Neal Zucker, civic philanthropist and chief executive of Corporate Cleaning Services, a window-washing company. Neal Zucker is a leader in Chicago's philanthropic community, helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for civic organizations, beautification projects and not-for-profit groups.

Exhibiting their timber window products at Grand Designs Live is already proving to be a success for Dempsey Dyer Ltd, a UK manufacturer of timber window, door and conservatory solutions. Held at the NEC in Birmingham earlier this month, the show was opened by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud on the 8th October and ran for three days. Exhibiting from a modest stand of just 3m x 3m, Dempsey Dyer were able to showcase only a selection of their high performance timber window products. Three unique products were chosen including a flush casement window, a Stormproof window and a fully reversible window.

The chaplain to the Chilean president who led prayers for the 33 trapped miners was formerly a postman in Cornwall, it has emerged. Chilean-born the Rev Alfredo Cooper, 60, delivered mail in the UK after his family moved to Par, near St Austell, in the early 1970s. But Mr Cooper later moved back to his homeland and led prayers at the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago for the 33 men after the San Jose mine collapsed. St Austell resident Don Double, 76, got to know the chaplain, who also worked as a window cleaner, when they both attended church together. He said: ''He is an outstanding man and I have a lot of respect for him. Alf still comes to visit me at my home when he is in St Austell. Chilean-born Mr Cooper was a postman in St Austell in the 1970s after his family moved to Cornwall, where they still live. He spent four months delivering mail in St Blazey and Par and also worked as a window cleaner. He was appointed chaplain to the president Sebastian Pinera in January.

The family of a Whitchurch window cleaner who hanged himself at a mental health hospital say they feel he was let down by staff and the NHS. Anthony Porter, 52, of Parkwood Close, was admitted to Callington Road hospital by his family on Friday, June 13, 2008, an inquest heard. He had cut his wrists with a knife at home the day before and his family believed the hospital would be a safer place for him. But two days later he was found dead in the en-suite bathroom of his room at the hospital. Assistant deputy coroner Terry Moore heard that staff nurse Rachel Hawes found Mr Porter hanging at 8.50am.

Through tears, family turmoil and now a possible life sentence, former Inkster narcotics cop Scott (Rex) Rechtzigel says he did what he had to do. Pressed by defense lawyers in a high-profile 2005 drug case on whether he knew the prosecution's star witness, Chad Povish, before he was stopped driving a car carrying 47 kilos of cocaine, Rechtzigel said, "No." It was a lie designed to protect Povish's life and hide the fact that he was a paid informant who set up the drug sting. The prosecution and judge knew about it. The defense did not."The first line of a law enforcement officer's oath is a promise to safeguard lives," he said. "I think that's what I was doing." Rechtzigel is no longer a police officer, and he recently lost his civilian administrative post. He does have a window washing and cleaning business. It's quite a change from his role as sergeant of the Inkster Police Department's special investigative unit, which in 2005 made an astonishing 47-kilo cocaine bust. "I had no idea we were going to get that much," he said. "Informants often exaggerate.... I really didn't believe it till we opened the duffle bags."

The diary of “Edna Fry (Mrs)”, the alter ego of Stephen Fry, who has long delighted her Twitter followers with demure yet dirty snatches from a parallel world in which Fry is a window cleaner whose principal interests include football and “special videos”. Here, though, while Fry’s literary cross-dressing is sweet and funny, it is only patchily successful. The 140-character limit on tweets rewards epigrammatic wit, and Fry’s best one-liners are polished until they shine. What works less well is the attempt to shuffle them into a plot.

Imagine shattering a large stained glass window, cleaning each one of the roughly 3000 pieces of glass that comprise it and then putting it all back together to go on show at one of Canberra's most prominent churches. That was the task of stained glass artist Gerry Cummins and his partner Jill, who have spent the past three years restoring seven stained glass windows from the heritage- listed St Andrew's Church. Cummins said the church, in State Circle, was built in 1934 during the Depression with materials that were of poor quality. ''A lot of corners had been cut during the construction and the windows couldn't cope with the very cold weather or the heat,'' he said.

''Some of the glass had started to break and in some areas the glass had started to fall out, the windows were prodigiously buckled.''We removed the windows, which took about a week each time with a team of four or five, then crated the windows and took them up to our studio in Queensland where we took rubbings of the windows, documented them and then totally dismantled them.'' Cummins and his wife then began carefully cleaning every individual piece of glass with cotton buds, under magnifying lenses to make sure they weren't damaging the glass. ''Then we set about reconstructing the windows, using top-rate internationally approved leads, put the windows back in the crates and brought them back here to install them,'' he said.The restoration of the windows has been 20 years in the making and is part of a multimillion-dollar restoration program being carried out at the church.

Santa cart thieves might have ruined Christmas: A festive treat for children in Worplesdon is at risk of being ruined by thieves this year. For the past five years, Theresa Smith has used her 14-year-old pony to pull a cart around on Christmas Eve, delighting passing children by giving out sweets from Santa. But now the event is in jeopardy after thieves broke into Pitmore Farm in Worplesdon on October 4 and stole the two-wheel exercise cart complete with brown padded seat. They also took several horse rugs, bags of haylage, a Honda generator, a chainsaw, a hedge-cutter and window cleaning ladders.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Myrtle Beach hoteliers who have to keep their pools running all winter long for snowbirds are having to replace their glass enclosures with safer ones. The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported Sunday that a federal ban on certain pool enclosures will be enforced starting Nov. 1. The enclosures help keep outdoor pools warm enough to be used year-round. Federal law prohibits communities in the National Flood Insurance Program from using hard-structure pool enclosures - often made of glass - in the floodplain. Myrtle Beach hotels have been using the enclosures for more than 30 years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency raised safety concerns in 2007 and the city changed its ordinances and has begun inspections to make sure the vinyl or Plexiglas structures are in place by the deadline.

Solarmotion is a controllable shading system that is programmed to automatically adjust with the movement of the sun to reduce solar heat gain and glare to save energy and maximize daylight. Solarmotion shading systems offers two product lines: Solarmotion controllable sunshades & Solarmotion external (retractable) venetian blinds. The Solarmotion controllable sunshades product line offers several styles of mullion cover, is designed to meet typical spans and includes all the necessary operating mechanics such as blade linkage, a high-efficiency motor, structurally designed mullion, caps to prevent weather infiltration into the assembly and an adjustable stand-off to meet building tolerances and allow for window cleaning after installation.

The Glasgow star, actor David Hayman has made a documentary about the Edinburgh villains who killed innocent victims and sold their corpses. But Hayman admitted his first experience of violent death was much closer to home. When he was a child, his grandfather Walter died during a beating from his grandmother Ruby. But the scandal was covered up by the family. Hayman said: "Walter was a window cleaner at Ruchill Hospital in Glasgow. "He was a compulsive gambler, which caused no end of problems. "We had just moved from Drumchapel and were living in Blairdardie, when the telephone rang one night and it was my grandmother Ruby. "My dad picked it up and she was in a terrible state. She said, 'Dave, you had better come over. I think I have just killed Wattie'. "

My dad raced over and, sure enough, my grandad was dead. "They had been having a fight and she had got him in an arm-lock and was punching him when he had a heart attack and dropped dead. "Gran was brought over to our house and I was sent over to my grandad's to sit with my dad and wait until the undertakers ca me. "When I got there, dad was sitting in the armchair and my wee grandad was lying on the bed stark naked and he looked so small and shrunken. "The next couple of hours were two of the most uncomfortable of my life as my dad and I tried to make conversation with my grandad lying next door." Hayman said the family hushed up the whole affair. He added: "We were all under strict instructions never to tell anyone what happened. It was one of those family secrets we never talked about."

Health officials warn of lead poisoning dangers:  Children living in homes built before 1978 could be at risk for learning disabilities, hearing loss, and violent behavior if lead paint is still present in the home according to the Environment Protection Agency. The EPA along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other national organizations are partnering together to raise awareness about National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week which runs through Oct. 30. The EPA says if you suspect that your house has lead hazards, you can take some immediate steps to reduce your family's risk: Clean floors, window frames, window sills, and other surfaces weekly. Use a mop, sponge, or paper towel with warm water and a general all-purpose cleaner or a cleaner made specifically for lead.

Glass News For The Discerning Window Cleaner

The miracle spray-on glass that stops the bugs: Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool is coating the toys in its wards with a revolutionary form of "liquid glass" that has proven in trials to reduce the number of disease-causing bacteria living on the surface of objects. Severely ill children being treated at Alder Hey are often not allowed to play with the hospital's pool of toys because of fears that infections will be passed between patients, some of whom may have suppressed immune systems resulting from their life-saving treatment. The liquid glass, which is safe and completely inert, forms an invisible, flexible coating on the surface of an object and repels dirt and grime. More importantly, it is believed to prevent the build-up of hospital-acquired infections such as the superbug Staphylococcus aureus, which is resistant to many antibiotics.
Alder Hey is testing the experimental coating on the toys in its children's wards because these shared objects come into intimate body contact and could easily become a source of a hospital-acquired infection spread between the children. "We have an awful lot of toys and many of them are difficult to clean. We even have to remove some of them because they are so difficult to keep clean, yet they are so important for the children," said Pauline Bradshaw, operational director of infection, prevention and control at Alder Hey."We view toys in the same frame as any other medical device that has to be cleaned and decontaminated. Once the toy is coated with the liquid glass you cannot see any difference whatsoever. I think it's got great potential not just for toys but for other hospital settings," Ms Bradshaw said.
Tests of the liquid glass in another nearby hospital, Southport and Formby District General, have shown that coating surfaces such as floors, bedside tables, washbasins, toilet handles and lift buttons, can reduce bacterial growth by between 25 and 50 per cent. The three-month trial at Southport compared surfaces coated with the liquid-glass, made by a German company called Nanopool, against untreated surfaces. Hospital staff followed their usual cleaning routines and were not told which surfaces had been coated. Scientists took swabs of different hospital areas every week for the 12-week period and the final results demonstrated a clear, statistical difference in bacterial load between the treated and untreated surfaces, according to the official evaluation of the trial. "These initial results suggest that the Nanopool coating would be effective in reducing levels of contamination on a range of surfaces in hospitals and could potentially improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the cleaning regime," the report says.
"The evaluation also confirmed that the Nanopool coating can be applied in a busy hospital setting with relative ease and with minimal disruption," it says. The liquid glass, a form of silicon dioxide in solution, was originally developed as an anti-graffiti coating for the outside of buildings but scientists soon realised that it had the potential to act as an anti-bacterial barrier. Nanopool said that it has conducted tests at a meat-processing plant in Germany and found that cleaning treated surfaces with hot water was just as effective at killing bacteria as cleaning untreated surfaces with a bleach solution.
Neil McClelland, Nanopool's UK project manager, said that the liquid glass coating is just a few millions of a millimetre thick and the electrostatic forces on the nanoscale film repel water and dirt. They also prevent bacteria from replicating in the way they would normally do on an untreated surface, he said. "The tests show that we can reduce bacterial loading by between 25 and 50 per cent at a stroke and I suspect it may be higher with a bespoke cleaning method we are developing. As soon as the data on the trial was released we got a request from the same hospital in Southport to coat 150 toilets," Mr McClelland said. Brent Dunleavey, the managing director of Radal Technology, which is subcontracted by Nanopool, is working with Alder Hey and other NHS hospitals interested in using liquid glass to coat surfaces at risk of spreading superbugs. The trial on the Alder Hey toys will involve a new cleaning method that does away with the usual caustic, bleaching agents and instead uses a "skin-safe, food-safe biocide", said Mr Dunleavey. Conventional cleaning products used in hospitals often leave a residue that could interfere with the anti-bacterial properties of the liquid glass, he said. Previous blog on nanopool here.

Volvo sues Pilkington over 'price-fixing': The claim by Volvo could run into millions of pounds and will pit the car maker's new Chinese owner, Geely, against Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG), the Japanese company that bought Pilkington for £2.2bn in 2006. In December 2008, the European Commission found Pilkington and three rivals – Asahi, Saint-Gobain and Soliver – had breached competition law by conspiring to fix prices and allocate markets for car glass products between 1998 and 2003.

Glass Pool Walls See Increasing Popularity in Australia: Glass and glazing trends vary from country to country. In Europe, for example, double-glazed facades are quite common, while in Australia, glass railings and balustrades can be seen on many homes, condos and hotel projects. In addition to balcony and patio railings, glass walls surrounding pools are also growing in popularity in Australia. “[Large-scale], frameless, glass pool walls are at the top end of the affordability scale,” said Vince Bianchini with Cooling Brothers, an Australian glass company located in High Wycombe, Western Australia. “There is an increasing trend for glass pool windows, which our company engineers, supplies and installs on a regular basis.”

Glass or metal? That could become an increasingly important question for developers of concentrating solar power projects. A growing number of companies, from 3M to Abengoa Solar, are working on mirrors made of metals and polymer that aim to be lightweight and cheaper than the glass variety. 3M is doing a pilot-stage launch of its Solar Mirror Film, and it’s planning for a full commercial launch by the end of the year, said Daniel Chen, business development manager of 3M’s renewable energy division. “Saving time and material costs are the big advantages,” Chen said during a recent poster session at 3M’s headquarters in Minnesota. Metallic films “also are easier to transport – you can pack them densely and use aluminum locally” for project construction.
Like GE and other titans in their industries, 3M is keen on winning a fat slice of the growing renewable energy market. The use of metal film, which is then laminated onto an aluminum backing, isn’t a new concept, and 3M launched a similar product in the 1980s. It lasted for 4-5 years before the entire market disappeared, Chen said. The company restarted the research in this area about two years ago, when the solar industry began to revive in earnest. Proponents say metal mirrors are suitable for all types of solar thermal power plant designs, including parabolic trough, power tower and stirling dish. But replacing glass, a durable and highly reflective material with a long history of surviving the outdoors, won’t be so easy. Investors and utilities tend to prefer well-proven technologies over novel ones. The largest solar thermal power complex in the world, the 354-megawatt solar field in the Mojave Desert, was built between 1984 and 1991 with glass mirrors.



Glass-bottomed hot air balloon takes its maiden flight: These stomach-churning images capture the moment the world's first glass-bottomed hot air balloon took its maiden flight today. The traditional wicker four-man basket has a completely transparent floor which provides passengers with heart-stopping views of the scenery below. The balloon took to the skies over Bath, Somerset, to mark the start of the 2010 Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. The basket was the brainchild of Christian Brown - a pilot with 18 years experience flying balloons - who admitted the flight was a 'terrifying experience'. He said: 'We've done tethered trials before, which usually end with passengers shrieking and screaming in fear, but this is the first time we've actually taken to the skies unaided. 'Ordinarily, you would look over the edge of the basket to peer at the ground below but there is something very disconcerting about seeing it right beneath your feet. The traditional wicker-sided basket carries up to two passengers and two pilots who stand on two-inch thick glass. Christian, 44, travelled the world in a balloon with tycoon Richard Branson and currently holds the tethered altitude world record after flying at 10,000ft on a mountain in Chile. Click pictures to enlarge.

The CEO of Molded Fiber Glass Companies, a distinguished international composites manufacturer, has earned additional recognition while serving as honorary president of the recent JEC Composites tradeshow in Paris. Richard Morrison opened the global show and served as a host for the awards ceremony. He also presented an overview of the fast-growing U.S. wind energy market, which Molded Fiber Glass (MFG) supports by manufacturing blades for wind turbines. During the global show, MFG was cited as one of the most “innovative advanced composite enterprises in the United States.” “As in other sectors, composite processors are currently under pressure, squeezed between raw material suppliers, who are hiking up their rates, and customers, who are holding out for better prices,” said Frédérique Mutel, president and CEO of the JEC Group, which promotes the use of composites worldwide.

Pilkington owner Nippon Sheet Glass expects profits: Pilkington owner Nippon Sheet Glass (NSG) is now expecting to go back into the black this year as the global recovery is increasing demand for its products. The company had forecast that it would make a loss of £29m in the year to March, 2011, as its key markets in construction and the automotive sector remain depressed. But improvements in both those markets mean it is now predicting a net income for the year of £7m. Its annual sales forecast remains constant at £4.4bn, thanks to the effects of the strong yen. In another sign that its markets are strengthening, last month Pilkington announced it was to restart one of its St Helens float lines in a move that will create up to 130 jobs. The decision was attributed to strong demand in South America.

47-inch touchscreen machine launched: No one has embraced the technological revolution quite like the Japanese. And when we say embraced, we mean produced a number of impressive, hi-tech gizmos and gadgets that could definitely be classified as exorbitant. And this latest bit of futuristic kit, without doubt, falls into that category. Because Japanese firm JR East has developed a vending machine that does away with the old fashioned method of simply looking through the glass and choosing the actual product you want, and instead gives the user a digital representation of what's on offer via a 47-inch touchscreen display. The display is also fully customised for the user, based on their age and gender, (it scans them using an embedded camera) and can also use its WiMAX capabilities to store buyers' purchase history.

Soladigm to Build $130 Million Factory, Create 300 Jobs in Mississippi: Soladigm, a developer of high-tech materials for energy efficient glass windows, announced that it will invest $130 million to build a factory in Olive Branch, where it expects to create about 300 jobs that will pay between $18 to $25 an hour. To attract the company here, the State of Mississippi is providing a $40 million loan and another $4 million of incentives for project improvements. Founded in 2007, Soladigm is currently operating a pilot production line at its headquarters in Milpitas, Calif. The company is backed by around $40 million of venture capital investment from Khoshla Ventures and Sigma Partners. In June, the U.S. Department of Energy also provided Soladigm with a $3.5 million stimulus grant.
Soladigm’s products include recent advancements in glass, optical coatings, and semiconductor technologies. Its glass can change from clear to tinted on demand, controlling the amount of light and heat that enters a building, resulting in energy savings. “The combination of Mississippi’s dedication to manufacturing, the proximity of our new plant to Memphis, the nation’s logistics and distribution hub, and Governor Barbour’s tremendous support were key factors in us determining to locate our first high volume manufacturing facility in Olive Branch,” said Rao Mulpuri, CEO of Soladigm.

Spanish glass-maker for solar plants to build $50 million US headquarters in Phoenix suburb: SURPRISE, Arizona. - A Spanish manufacturer of glass for commercial solar plants announced Wednesday that it will build a $50 million U.S. headquarters in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise.
Rioglass Solar said the 130,000-square-foot facility will employ more than 100 workers. An additional 130,000 square feet of manufacturing space is on the drawing board. The company makes curved glass sheets used in solar plant parabolic concentrators. It is a subsidiary of Rioglass Solar Holdings.

Construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts this week entered an important phase with the installation of the first of nearly 1,400 exterior glass panels. The glass will form the dramatic transparent canopy enclosing the southern face of the arts center and what will be its four-story-tall grand lobby. Each glass panel, fabricated in China, is affixed to a complex, intricately engineered network of masts and cables.



28 'gorgeous' windows given new life: As a teenager growing up in Germany, Paul Winter was given two career options: organ builder or stained-glass expert? "I really wanted to be a civil engineer building airplanes, but that wasn't possible in Germany in 1946," he said. "So I chose stained glass, because I thought there would be fewer costs than organs." More than 60 years later, Winter is still working at his colourful craft, using his talents to brighten up an Edmonton religious institution.
Winter, 80, is considered a master in stained glass, a job that requires the technical skills of a tradesperson and the vision of an artist. He trained for several years in Germany before moving to Edmonton in the late 1950s. Despite the fact his field has relatively few clients, he has maintained a busy career travelling all over the world designing, fixing and installing stained glass for virtually every Christian denomination.
"Sometimes you do one window, and sometimes the whole church," said Winter, who seemed destined for such a profession considering he was born in a church near Cologne and his father worked in one. "I don't think there is anybody else in Alberta right now who can do this kind of work."
The job is highly specialized and can also be dangerous. Winter remembers one project when a piece of falling glass sliced through his shoe and pinned his foot to the floor. "I couldn't move. I had to yell for help." His son, Andre, said there has been a fair amount of blood on the current seminary job. "These windows are one-inch thick. They're very heavy and very sharp, so there were a lot of cuts," Andre said. "I think Dad and I averaged about two to four Band-Aids per window."

1962 glass invention poised to become multi-billion dollar seller: In the 1960s, an ultra-strong glass was invented but it contained no purpose. Nearly a half a century later, Corning Inc. is expected to sell a multi-billion dollar product by installing the glass to face of touch-screen tablets and plasma televisions. Corning Incorporated is expected to rake in billions of dollars over the next little while a 1962 invention of an ultra-strong glass – Gorilla - is poised to be the face of touch-screen computers and plasma televisions