The mosquito was a menace in the Americas from the earliest recorded times, and spread yellow fever through the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1647 and hit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hard in 1793, perhaps ending the city’s cultural dominance in the newly-formed nation. Back in the day there was no such thing as
Window Screen Repair.

In 1861,  the ‘Gilbert, Bennett and Company’ was routinely manufacturing wire mesh sieves for food processing, when an inspired employee working on the project,  realized that the wire cloth could be painted gray and sold as ‘window screens’ and the product became an immediate success

On July 7, 1868, a U.S. Patent, number  was issued for ‘screened’ roof-top rail-car windows, thus allowing ventilation flow, while preventing “sparks, cinders, dust, etc.” coming in from the locomotive engine, and entering the passenger compartment, and by 1874, E.T. Barnum Company of Detroit, Michigan, was advertising ‘screens’ that were sold by the square foot.

Apparently, window screens designed specifically to prevent insect ingress were not patented in the United States, although by 1900 several patents had been awarded for particular innovations related to many window and door screen designs, with results by the 1950s that parasitic diseases were largely eradicated in the United States, in part due to the widespread use of window screens, and today almost all houses in the United States have screens on all windows, doors, sliding doors and on garages.

The modern window screen, insect screen or bug screen is a metal wire, fiberglass, or other synthetic fiber mesh, stretched in a frame of wood or metal, designed to cover the opening of a door or window, and its primary purpose is to keep insects, leafs, debris, birds, and other animals from entering a home or a screened structure such as a porch, while permitting fresh air-flow.

Screen usage in the United States is probably more prevalent than anywhere else in the world. Until the screen was developed for windows, we used to cover the window with ‘storm resistant’ materials during the winter. Up until screens were invented, it was difficult to have open windows and doors. Most people throughout the world today don’t give much thought to screens, unless we need to use one and it is damaged or even worse, it’s missingScreens are used to keep insects from getting inside and they can be used for various other reasons as well.