Very few 19th Century glassmaking innovations in the United States happened at the beginning of the century. Only ten glass manufacturers are thought to have been operating in 1800. High-quality glassware was imported from England, and glassmaking knowledge was kept secret. England controlled a key ingredient for producing high–quality glassware and kept its price high—making it difficult for American glass manufacturers to compete price-wise. European glassmakers with the knowledge to produce high–quality glassware were, in some cases, smuggled to the United States. Eventually the American glass industry grew, and the second half of the century saw numerous innovations.
The two most significant innovations of the 19th century were mechanical pressing and a new formula for high quality glass. Mechanical pressing increased productivity and allowed more of the public to afford glassware. It was developed simultaneously at several locations during the 1820s. Among those that received pressing-related patents were John P. Bakewell of Bakewell and Company; Henry Whitney and Enoch Robinson of New England Glass Company; and Phineas C. Dummer, George Dummer, and James Maxwell of the Jersey City Glass Works. A new formula for glass, developed by William Leighton Sr. at J. H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company, lowered costs and allowed even more people to afford glassware.
Many mechanical innovations in the last half of the century involved the procedure for melting ingredients, cooling (annealing) newly made glass, and automation. By the end of the century a new machine designed by John H. Lubbers began to make many glassblowers obsolete, and work was being conducted on a bottle-making machine by Michael J. Owens that eventually revolutionized the bottle industry. Preliminary work by Irving Wightman Colburn had started that would change the way window glass was made. Owens and Colburn worked together to finish this new window glass process during the 20th century. A new formula for ruby glass, which did not need gold as an additive, was developed by Nicholas Kopp Jr. in the 1890s around the time of the start of the American auto industry.
Two fathers.
Glass is made by starting with a batch of ingredients, melting it, forming the glass product, and gradually cooling it. In 1800, the United States is thought to have had no more than a ten operating glass factories. Most of the nation's glass products came from Europe. Lead ore, known as red lead, was a key ingredient necessary to make high-quality glassware, but England controlled the world's known supply. The United States Embargo Act of 1807, and the War of 1812, made red lead extremely difficult to acquire. After the war England kept the price of red lead high, and dumped low-priced glass products in the United States. This drove some American glass companies into bankruptcy.
One of the few successful American glass companies was the New England Glass Company, which was incorporated in 1818 and led by Deming Jarves—who has been called the "father of the American glass industry." Using assistance from the Harvard University library and a British engineer named James B. Barnes, Jarves developed a way to produce red lead from domestic sources of lead oxide. Jarves' red lead was good enough that his New England Glass Company was "exporting" cut crystal glassware to Europe by 1825. Jarves smuggled European glassmaking talent to America at a time when it was forbidden by European countries. However, the glassmakers themselves kept their techniques and recipes secret. If a company lost a skilled glassworker, it was possible that certain types of glass could no longer be made at the glassworks. Jarves began to keep records of glass recipes and procedures. This gave him more control over the intellectual rights of his company. New England Glass Company was a "great innovator under the leadership of Deming Jarves" and Jarves "revolutionized the American glass industry".
Benjamin Bakewell founded a glass manufacturing company in Pittsburgh in 1808. This company, which began as Bakewell &amp; Ensell, became Pittsburgh's best known glass manufacturer. It changed its name many times, but always had Bakewell as part of the name. Among the names used were Bakewell, Page &amp; Bakewell; and Bakewell, Pears &amp; Company. The Bakewell and Pears families were involved with the company for most of its existence, and Benjamin Page was an important member of the company in its early years. Bakewell needed skilled glassworkers early in the company's existence, so English glass men were smuggled to Pittsburgh. The company received its supply of red lead from Deming Jarves. Bakewell became well known for its lead crystal glass, and also made engraved and cut glassware. Other products, such as window glass and bottles, were also made. Jarves considered Benjamin Bakewell the "father of the flint-glass [crystal] business in this country". In the 1820s and 1830s, Bakewell glassware was purchased for the White House by presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson.
19th century innovations.
The mechanical innovations, and other innovations, listed below are from an essay published in the December 1920 edition of "Scientific American". The essay was titled "Modern Glass-Making", and it was written by E. Ward Tillotson, assistant director of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. The essay contains a list titled "Some Notable Developments in the Glass Industry". Some of these innovations were first developed in the United States, while others were already in operation in foreign countries. During the 19th century and earlier, European countries (and their skilled glassworkers) tried to keep glassmaking methods secret—causing some processes to need to be rediscovered in the United States. The leading manufacturers (and exporters) of European glass, based on statistics from near 1880, were England, France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria–Hungry. William Leighton Jr., chemist at J. H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company, wrote a newspaper article in 1880 that called pressing and the new soda-lime glass formula the two great steps in American glassmaking. Professor Warren C. Scoville of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an essay titled "Growth of the American Glass Industry to 1880", considered the five outstanding glassmaking innovations up to that time to be 1) mechanical pressing; 2) the new soda-lime (a.k.a. lime) glass formula; 3) the shift from wood to coal for fuel; 4) the beginning of plate glass manufacturing; and 5) the gas furnace.
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