Ribbons of Glass

A new technology was needed to make glass affordable and in large enough quantities in America.  Henry Bessemer, of later steel fame, was experimenting with a process that would make glass into a continuous process rather than batch by batch or separate sheets.  He hoped to make glass into long broad ribbons of uniform thickness. But he needed several things...

One, a gas fired furnace as Bessemer needed, was slow in coming to America.  Wood was cheaper and the call for glass smaller in America.  About 1880 a method of drawing  a flat sheet of glass directly from the furnace was devised.  A sheet called a "bait" was dipped into molten glass and adhered to the glass.  Then the bait was drawn upward to pull the molten glass into a sheet.  However, once again it was difficult to keep the glass uniform in thickness or width.

By the end of the 19th century, Americans were actually beginning to take the lead in glass making innovations.  Bessemer was a part of this movement.  The canning industry, with the demand for glass jars was another.  Improvements also included Mason's screw top lid for glass jars which was patented in 1888.  With the improvements in heating and canning, the next step was the semi-automatic machine for making bottles.  This most important machine since the invention of glass blowing iron for making glass containers came from a an unexpected place...

Next time...A Kid in Toledo
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Today in Pioneer History: "On January 20, 1930, Charles Lindbergh flew an experimental glider into San Diego, California and became the 9th pilot in the United States to receive a glider's license.

America's First Industry

Until 1830 Bulls-eye, or crown glass was how glass windows were made, along with another technique called the Hand-Cylinder method, in which globes of hot glass were elongated into cylinders by swinging into a deep trench, the slit lengthwise, flattened and cooled.

The glass makers held the prestige of being called  "gentlemen" unlike others who worked with their hands.  The wealthy were their customers, they held a monopoly, and claimed their craft was "aristocratic."  The glass maker could build their own glass plant, making it the first industry in colonial America.

Glass making in America was started by immigrants from Germany, Poland and Italy in the early 1600s.  Massachusetts Bay offered land to attract glass makers who could make bottles, lamps, tableware and small windows.  Glass beads for Indian trade were also a popular product.

Casper Wistar, German immigrant, started a glass plant which his son advertised in Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette in 1769 as "our own glass, of our own manufacture, more especially those upon which the duties (taxes) have been imposed solely to raise revenue." The slogan used was "BUY AMERICAN MANUFACTURED GOODS" at a time when the British goods were becoming very unpopular in colonial America.

In contrast, Henry William Stiegal (Baron von Stiegal due to his lavish lifestyle) used imported glass to make glassware, perfume bottles and other luxury items.  Stiegal had trouble marketing his luxury glass to a people who turned their noses up at Old World taste.  Stiegal went bankrupt, went to debtor's prison, and died in poverty.  However, if you have any Stiegal glassware today (photo right), you have something that is considered part of a precious collection...one that the American Revolution time period didn't .
appreciate.



Next time - Evolving: Sheet glass for the masses
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Today in Pioneer History: "On January 13, 1929, Wyatt Earp dies in Los Angeles, nearly 50 years after the gunfight at the OK Corral.  Earp was 80 years old.  After the famous shootout, Earp had wandered the West, operating gold mines, running saloons and raising horses.  His last saloon was in Nome, Alaska where he had joined the Alaskan Gold Rush until 1901.