Glass Industry in West Virginia

History of GlassAn Interdisciplinary Project of Cabell County

Schools and Marshall University’s June Harless Center

Session 2 – 11 April 2013

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Outline• History of Glass– World

• Invention/Discovery• Early Uses• Spread of Glass Technology

– US• Jamestown• Pittsburgh

– West Virginia • Why glass in WV• Early WV glassmakers• WV Glass Labor

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First Uses of Glass

• First use was as jewelry• Invention was probably accidental from mixing

wood ashes and sand• Invention likely around 3000 – 2000 BC in

Mesopotamia or Egypt

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Early Glass Artifacts

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First Glass Containers

• Early glass was core formed by putting a stick in molten glass and shaping over a clay form

• Glass making spread to China around 500 BC

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Egyptian glass

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Sumerian glass bottle

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Roman glass

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Glass from Judea

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Glass Blowing

• Glass bowing was developed around 100 BC, probably in Syria, and required much higher temperatures that molding

• Glass technology swept through Rome since glass vessels were stronger, lighter and easier to make than the ceramic containers it replaced

• Innovations in glass advanced in Rome more quickly than at any time in history, including today

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Sargon Vase

• 750 BC

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Roman Glass Innovations

• Excavations of Roman middens suggest that glass items were so inexpensive that they were discarded when they sustained even slight damage

• Some window glass was used in Rome but not widely since the Mediterranean climate didn’t need as much protection from the elements

• Following Roman occupation, window glass was common in Great Britain

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• Replica Roman window glass

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• Prior to the development of plate glass, small pieces of horn or parchment were used to let light in windows

• Glass balls were used as magnifying glass in Rome

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Middle Ages

• There were few innovations in glass from 400 – 1400 AD

• Alexandria was the center of stained glass manufacturing around 1000 AD

• Damascus was a glass making center until the 1400 invasion by Timor when many glass craftsman escaped to Italy

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Italian Glassmaking

• Italian glass innovations in the 1400s include millefiori and crystal

• Many advances in science and technology were tied to advances in Italian glass manufacturing during the Renaissance

• The Venetians guarded their glass blowing techniques so carefully that they moved their best artists to the island of Murano

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Murano Crystal

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Murano millefiori

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Millefiori

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Glassmaking in the US

• The first recorded production of glass in the US was in Jamestown in 1608 by a group of “Dutchmen”. Later, a group of Italian glassblowers were brought to Virginia

• Early US glass industries developed near forest areas since quantities of wood were required to fuel the glass furnaces. Later coal and eventually natural gas was used as a heat source.

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Jamestown Glass

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American Glass Pocket Flask

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Glass in West Virginia

• In WV there is abundant coal and natural gas as an energy source

• Raw materials (silica, lime, metals) are readily available

• River transport allowed products to be shipped

• A capable labor force existed

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Early WV Glass Manufacturing

• It is believed that the first glassmaking in what is now West Virginia was in Wellsburg as early as 1813

• The glass industry expanded along the Ohio River using immigrant labor and artists in the late 1800s

• Dean Six estimates that over 450 glass manufacturers have been in business in WV

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Issac Duval Glass(possibly)

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• By 1930, over 15% of all glass produced in the US came from West Virginia

• Michael Owens developed an economical glass blowing machine

• Libby-Owens-Ford started making automobile glass in Charleston from 1917

• William Blenko started WV operations in 1921 making European style art glass

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WV Glass Labor

• Most glass workers were immigrants from Italy, Russia, Poland and Belgium

• Glass unions formed to protect workers• Tariffs on glass protected domestic market

share but slowed innovation

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