In the early 1800’s, individual glass blocks were used to provide light to cellars and ships’ bowels - at first, cut squares of simple conventional glass, then prism-shaped pressed glass which allowed light to be dispersed.

In order to fix this prismatic glass, they were fitted into steel frame structures in the form of intermediate ceilings or skylights which allowed larger surfaces to become translucent.

The invention of reinforced concrete - first used by Monier in 1867 - and the introduction of glass manufacturing by machine which started with the first Lubber machine in 1903 opened up new perspectives for glass as a large-scale spatial element.

In 1904, Joachim, a French architect, built the first dome of concrete and glass. In 1907 Friedrich Keppler, founder and head of the Berlin Luxfer-Prismen-Gesellschaft applied for a patent for solid glass blocks of 4 to 6.5cm thickness, to be fitted into support structures of reinforced concrete. In the following year Joachim applied for the French patent, “Le béton armé translucide".

The development of hollow glass blocks for vertical structures, which offered the advantage of better noise and thermal isolation in comparison to the solid blocks, took place at about the same time. In 1902, the “Technical Military Committee" praised the excellent properties of this new invention.

As early as the 1880’s, hexagonal bodies with arched exteriors which could be composed into honeycomb constructions, were mouth blown for partition and exterior walls. The hollow glass forms which were shaped like neckless bottles were initially worked with mortar. Great care was taken to place the open ends into the mortar in such a manner that the hollow area was hermetically sealed off against the outside air. Condensation could however seldom be prevented completely. These first mouth-blown blocks also suffered from such production deficiencies as differing wall thicknesses and thin corners.

Soon however, more robust machine-made blocks were offered by Luxfer-Prismen-Gesellschaft as well as Siemens in Dresden. Their products consisted mainly of open hollow glass blocks which resembled the usual bricks in size and form. Albert Gerrer in Mulhouse was at the same time still manufacturing mouth-blown glass blocks using Falconnier process which however were sealed before the block cooled down with small glass plugs. Their form still resembled that of the hexagonal prototypes.

It was not until the 1930’s that the further development of machine production produced more satisfactory types which were easier to work. The Corning-Steuben block, consisting of two halves of heat-proof glass pressed together, as well as the Owen-Illinois block became immediate precursors of the patented block of Pilkington Bros Ltd. (St Helens). Modern glass blocks are still being produced according to this principle, namely that two moulded-glass halves with a hollow interior are melted and fused together under high temperatures.